Robert Cialdini on Commitment and Consistency
Virtually all of our laws dealing with fraud presume a model of the rational actor, who with better and more accurate information will see through frauds and scams. This is simply not true, at least for many of the people who need the protection of the law. At times in our lives, we all need to believe in something. Scams and frauds hook innocent, reasonably intelligent people just at these times. Providing more information to people which robs them of hope may only push them faster into making an irrational decision.
