Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive (edition 2012)

2 stars for most of it, 3 for the end notes, which in the best sections were longer (and invariably more interesting) than the actual text. ( )

Having read his blog off and on for a number of years, a lot of it felt familiar...and I was surprised at how dry it was. (This is my vague recollection 6 months later.) ( )

Indeholder "A Note for Reader", " 1. Overview", "Part I. The Science of Trust", " 2. A Natural History of Security", " 3. The Evolution of Cooperation", " 4. A Social History of Trust", " 5. Societal Dilemmas", "Part II. A Model of Trust", " 6. Societal Pressures", " 7. Moral Pressures", " 8. Reputational Pressures", " 9. Institutional Pressures", " 10. Security Systems", "Part III. The Real World", " 11. Competing Interests", " 12. Organizations", " 13. Corporations", " 14. Institutions", "Part IV. Conclusions", " 15. How Societal Pressures Fail", " 16. Technological Advances", " 17. The Future", "Acknowledgements", "Notes", "References", "About the Author", "Index".
En glimrende bog om tillid og om hvordan det får samfundet til at hænge sammen. I alt fald får mangel på tillid et samfund til at smuldre helt, som fx Sovjetunionens fald beviser.
Undervejs er der gennemgang af Prisoner's Dilemma i mange afskygninger. The Ultimatum Game, The Dictator Game, The Trust Game, The Public Goods Game. Mange eksperimenter viser at simple økonomiske modeller i alt fald ikke gælder for menneskelig adfærd.
Vi opfører os typisk som om vi er i en gruppe på ca 150 personer, som før eller siden får det at vide hvis vi laver en svinestreg. ( )

The first chapters of Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust That Society Needs to Thrive by Bruce Schneier, a book about the how and why of trust in today's world, were tough going but the balance of the book is well worth the effort. The work seems to be a psychological/sociological description and explanation of how trust comes to be. It seems to be a philosophical work as the author puts forth his ideas about how "defection" from the group expectations can be a positive and/or a negative - for example, people who ran the underground railway in the 1800s were defectors. The work is not a hands-on guide to developing security but is an excellent effort to investigate why we trust . . . trust that the piece of paper our employer gives us can be taken to the bank and exchanged for money or that the lost person at the door isn't really casing the house for a future break-in.

As I said, the first chapters were difficult but the rest of the book became one it was difficult to put down. Fascinating. ( )