Conversation with a Stranger. Why We Misjudge People and Trust Liars

Imagine yourself in the position of a judge who needs to decide whether to release a suspect on bail. You are offered either to simply review the dry facts of the suspect's biography or to meet and talk to him in person, to look him in the eyes and see his reaction. Many of us would choose the second option — for we often consider information gained through personal contact to be extraordinarily valuable. But it is precisely in this, according to Malcolm Gladwell, that the reason for fatal mistakes, personal tragedies, incorrect judicial decisions, and even disasters of global scale lies.

A spy who worked for many years in the Pentagon, passing data to the Cuban intelligence. Politicians who failed to recognize Hitler's double game, leading the world to catastrophe. Police shooting innocent people simply because their reactions seem suspicious to them. Parents who cannot recognize in a sports doctor a predator corrupting their children. The author analyzes all these stories and comes to shocking conclusions.

It turns out we are unable to recognize a liar, even when communicating with him for a long time. And all our usual notions about suspicious behavior, facial expressions, gestures, and intonations turn out to be fundamentally wrong. Malcolm Gladwell invites us to embark on an intellectual adventure into the dark side of human nature.

You will find that our perception of strangers almost always does not correspond to reality, and the misinterpretation of their behavior can have catastrophic consequences.