How does society function when you can't trust everyone?
When we think about trust - we naturally think about personal relationships or bank accounts. But that is much too narrow; trust is broader, and far more important. Nothing in society works without trust. It is the foundation of communities, commerce, democracy, and world stability.
In this insightful and entertaining book, Schneier weaves together ideas from across the social and biological sciences to explore how societies induce and encourage trust–and what happens when it fails in our personal lives, our businesses, communities, and the world.
In today’s hyper-connected society, understanding the mechanisms of trust is as important as understanding electricity was a century ago. Issues of trust and security are critical to solving problems as diverse as corporate responsibility, global warming, and stagnant political systems. After reading Liars and Outliers, you’ll think about social problems, large and small, with a new perspective.
"Schneier makes an original and powerful argument for rethinking society. . . . His message is full of insight into how we function, or don't function, and along the way we are constantly hearing from the giants—such as Emerson, Thoreau, Socrates, even Emily Dickinson."
—Seymour M. Hersh, New Yorker
"Deeply philosophical yet highly accessible, Liars and Outliers is more than thought-provoking—it's the kind of book that fundamentally changes the way you think."
—Daniel J. Solove, John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
"Brilliantly dissects, classifies, and orders the social dimension of security—a spectacularly palatable tonic against today's incoherent and dangerous flailing in the face of threats from terrorism to financial fraud."
—Cory Doctorow, Author of Little Brother and Makers; co-editor of BoingBoing.net
"Engaging, insightful, and thought-provoking, Liars and Outliers will alter how you think about trust and security."
—Dorothy Denning, Distinguished Professor of Defense Analysis, Naval Postgraduate School, and author of Information Warfare and Security
"Without trust, nothing can be achieved. Liars and Outliers is a brilliant analysis of the role of trust in society and business."
—Claus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
A note for e-book readers: For ease of reference, the figures used in this book are also located at www.schneier.com/lo.
A Note for Readers xv
1 Overview 1
PART I THE SCIENCE OF TRUST 15
2 A Natural History of Security 17
3 The Evolution of Cooperation 27
4 A Social History of Trust 41
5 Societal Dilemmas 51
PART II A MODEL OF TRUST 61
6 Societal Pressures 63
7 Moral Pressures 75
8 Reputational Pressures 87
9 Institutional Pressures 103
10 Security Systems 123
PART III THE REAL WORLD 137
11 Competing Interests 139
12 Organizations 155
13 Corporations 173
14 Institutions 195
PART IV CONCLUSIONS 205
15 How Societal Pressures Fail 207
16 Technological Advances 225
17 The Future 243
Notes 249
References 287
Acknowledgments 347
Index 349
Liars and Outliers Q&A
Q: In your book, Liars and Outliers, you write, "Trust and cooperation are the first problems we had to solve before we could become a social species—but in the 21st century, they have become the most important problems we need to solve again." What do you mean by trust?
A: That's is the right question to ask, since there are many different definitions of trust floating around. The trust I am writing about isn't personal, it's societal. By my definition, when we trust a person, an institution, or a system, we trust they will behave as we expect them to. It's more consistency or predictability than intimacy.
And if you think about it, this is exactly the sort of trust our complex society runs on. I trust airline pilots, hotel clerks, ATMs, restaurant kitchens, and the company that built the computer I'm writing these answers on.
Q: What makes people trustworthy?
A: That's the key question the book tackles. Most people are naturally trustworthy, but some are not. There are hotel clerks who will steal your credit card information. There are ATMs that have been hacked by criminals. Some restaurant kitchens serve tainted food. There was even an airline pilot who deliberately crashed his Boeing 767 into the Atlantic Ocean in 1999. Given that there are people who are naturally inclined to be untrustworthy, how does society keep their damage to a minimum? We use what I call societal pressures: morals and reputation are two, laws are another, and security systems are a fourth. Basically, it's all coercion. We coerce people into behaving in a trustworthy manner because society will fall apart if they don't.
Q: But even with all of that, not everyone is trustworthy.
A: Exactly. No society is 100% trustworthy. The trick is to ensure that the minority of people who cheat, steal, or otherwise break the rules don't ruin everything for everyone. Take theft as an example. Our society requires that everyone respect the property rights of others. We need the rate of theft in society to be small enough so that we all basically trust each other. If the rate of theft gets too high, we might implement more societal pressures such as increased police protection and better locks on our doors. If the rate of theft gets very low, we might stop worrying about locking our doors. But no matter what we do, we'll never get the rate of theft down to zero.
Q: So it's a constant back and forth between the criminals and society.
A: Exactly. Criminals figure out new ways to steal things, and society has to respond with new ways of protecting property. This dynamic is especially important in periods of rapid technological change, like today. Technological advancements, particularly around the Internet, are changing the ways people can behave contrary to society's rules. Society needs to be nimble in defense, otherwise the untrustworthy will do too much damage.
Q: What makes Liars and Outliers so relevant in today's society?
A: As our systems—whether social systems like Facebook or political systems like Congress—get more complex, the destructive potential of defectors becomes greater. To use another term from the book, the scope of defection increases with more technology. This means that the societal pressures we traditionally put in place to limit defections no longer work, and we need to rethink security. It's easy to see this in terms of terrorism: one of the reasons terrorists are so scary today is that they can do more damage to society than the terrorists of 20 years ago could—and future technological developments will make the terrorists of 20 years from now scarier still.
Q: What do you hope readers will take away from reading Liars and Outliers?
A: I can do no better than quote from the first chapter: "This book represents my attempt to develop a full-fledged theory of coercion and how it enables compliance and trust within groups. My goal is to rephrase some of those questions and provide a new framework for analysis. I offer new perspectives, and a broader spectrum of what's possible. Perspectives frame thinking, and sometimes asking new questions is the catalyst to greater understanding. It's my hope that this book can give people an illuminating new framework with which to help understand the world."
unclben
Posted February 10, 2013
Why do I trust that my neighbor won't burgle my house while I'm at work, and why do others not have that luxury? How does society try to prevent Joe Badguy from laundering money, and how/why do the systems & pressures supposedly restraining Mr. Badguy sometimes fail or even become counterproductive? Those are the kind of questions Mr. Schneier asks and answers.
I think of the book a little like the Freakonomics series. Take some simple aspects of everyday life, the kind of things most people have never given a second thought (or a first thought for that matter), and look at them through new-fangled x-ray glasses that allow you to see the underlying mechanisms. Freakonomics looks at economic incentives, while Liars and Outliers looks at the effects of trust and of the various formal and informal systems that [try to] enforce and engender trust, and punish and deter those who are untrustworthy.
The main reason I'm rating the book 4 stars instead of 5 is that I don't think Liars and Outliers has the same broad appeal as a book like Freakonomics. That said, I'm not sure this is such a bad thing. Freakonomics is so broadly appealing, IMHO, because it picks and chooses case studies for maximum impact and entertainment. Liars and Outliers, in comparison, takes a wider view and explains entire systems from masthead to keel and stem to stern. This leaves it a little drier and less of a page-turner than it otherwise might have been, but also allows for a broader analysis than would be possible in the Freakonomics style.
For anybody interested in security (computer, physical, societal, or any other type) at all, I wholeheartedly recommend Liars and Outliers. The same goes for anybody who is a sociology layman but enjoys learning about new angles from which to view society and our interactions.
The one and only thing that I truly disliked about the book is the footnotes, or should I say the you-need-two-bookmarks-and-have-to-constantly-flip-back-and-forth-between-your-current-point-in-the-book-and-the-notes-all-bunched-together-at-the-very-end-of-the-book notes. I know that it was the publisher's choice and not Bruce's, but it is an abomination and it should be burned at the stake alongside unskippable pre-roll commercials on DVDs, homeopaths, and Madonna's remake of American Pie. Bruce, the next time your publisher suggests using this non-footnote-note arrangement in a book of yours, kindly put on your best Chuck Norris grimace (you have the beard already) and apply your foot directly to his face, roundhouse style.
Anonymous
Posted December 25, 2012
Schneier sets out to describe the social contract and how it applies to security, and does an excellent job with this compelling and well-written treatise.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.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.
Anonymous
Posted February 16, 2012
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Posted June 10, 2012
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Posted March 3, 2012
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Posted April 7, 2012
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Overview
How does society function when you can't trust everyone?
When we think about trust - we naturally think about personal relationships or bank accounts. But that is much too narrow; trust is broader, and far more important. Nothing in society works without trust. It is the foundation of communities, commerce, democracy, and world stability.
In this insightful and entertaining book, Schneier weaves together ideas from across the social and ...