A stroke of luck (2)

 Charu Datta behaved like the way an animal walks into a trap in search of the easy food waiting there.

They expected him to accept the invitation to work with the Prince. He did it readily. They expected him to become curious and watch secretly what the Prince was doing to the maiden behind closed doors. Their entire plan hinged on it. They expected him to become convinced that it was safe to bring his own wife. They expected him to want to make a fast buck without any risk by passing his young bride off as a virgin. He did.

Why did he fall for such a trick? Was he a big fool? 

Not really.We cannot spot a clever setup (here, the unsolicited offer of employment at the palace and the Prince’s special Gauri pooja with maidens being worshipped) however smart we are.  The simple reason is that there is nothing odd or unusual about it to arouse any kind of suspicion. A clever setup is like a smart spy who never looks like a spy.

Does it mean that there is no way we can prevent being deceived? Does it mean that we should look at everything and everyone with suspicion?

Certainly not. While we may not be able to spot a setup, there are things we can do to avoid walking into the trap.

We generally fall victims to deceptive persuasion for four reasons. I deal with them in chapter 10, The Resistant Persuadee, The Persuasive Manager. Let me give you a summary.

1.  We tend to take many decisions at a sub-rational level, which is driven largely by instincts.

2.  We blindly rely on certain rules of thumb to deal with the complexities of life.

3.  We are often too lazy to scrutinise apparently logical but false reasoning that our persuaders use.

4. We suffer from the Goliath Complex: we think we are too smart to be cheated.

When good things happen to us we fold our critical antennae and go along without asking any questions. We don’t want the soothing music to stop. Then instincts such as greed take over. Our fraudulent persuaders depend on this sequence to trap us.

It is possible to say that Charu Datta should have asked himself why, without any move whatsoever on his part, he was invited by the Prince and given a prestigious assignment. But this is wisdom in hindsight. Things like this can happen. Any of us could be the lucky beneficiary of someone’s generosity. We can’t blame Charu Datta for accepting the assignment.

Even his curiosity is understandable. But what undid him was letting greed guide his actions.  We see many examples around us. The Ahmedabad edition of the newspaper DNA has, for example, been reporting that a few local companies are promising 120% annual returns on investment. People are handing over their hard earned cash to agents of these companies. It is obvious that such high returns are either impossible or illegal or both. It is greed combined with a sense of invulnerability that persuaders many investors to part with their money.

There is a simple rule of thumb that we can follow if we don’t want to be victims of fraudulent persuasion: If something is too good to be true, don’t grab it; be extra critical. Consult others before you go ahead.