Introduction

To this point I have explored various aspects of the psychology of deception through the examination of a number of specific examples concerning the way people have taken advantage of others’ ardent wish to believe. Indeed, it was Jean-Jacques Rousseau himself who pointed out that “it is hard to prevent oneself from believing what one so keenly desires” [2]. I presented some examples of deception, but they are only a limited selection from a vast universe of possible instances [3]. There are any number of others that I could have focused on, including certain personal favorites [4]. I hope that, having read to this point, you might now recall and explore your own personal examples using some of the principles outlined here. What is important as we consider each respective story is, of course, a set of general principles that emerge, and it is on these I focus next.

The Constituents of a Successful Hoax

It is evident that the main characteristics of a successful hoax are fairly consistent. Above all things, the deceiver must identify a constituency. That is, for a deception to be successful there must be either an individual or a group of people who are ready to be deceived. If no one cares about the explicit or implied issue, then the hoax or deception fails.