Author / Shiyan cypress and psychological Qu Harrier Qi
Editor/Shiyan Bai and Psychology Zou Yue
In recent years, there has been a large explosion of money, a deception invented in 1919 by a speculative businessman named Charles Pounds. Ponzi scheme is the name given to financial fraud in the investment field, and it is also the ancestor of investment scams.
In China, Ponzi schemes, also known as tearing down the east wall to make up the west wall or empty gloves white wolf, are simply understood as using the money of new investors to pay interest and short-term returns to old investors in order to create the illusion of making money, and then defraud more people and more investment.
In the footnote of Marx's "Capital", it is very famous: if there is 20% of the profit capital, it will be ready to move, if there is 50% of the profit capital, it will be Maoxian, if there is 100% of the profit capital, it will dare to risk hanging its head, and if there is 300% of the profit capital, it will dare to trample on all the laws of the world. This sentence can also be changed, when the profit is high to a certain extent, the investor's intelligence and judgment will be selectively invalid.
Why does such a clumsy deception that began in 1919 still fool many people after nearly 100 years? From a psychological point of view, there are several reasons:
First, sunk costs. When you have invested a lot of time, energy, money, and emotions into a thing, a relationship, or a hobby, even when you find that the possibility of return is getting smaller and smaller, you don't dare to give up easily. Because giving up means that a lot of your previous investment has been wasted.
The victims of Ponzi schemes are not lacking in those who have risked their lives, and they may have been rationally aware of the risks, but the huge cost of silence makes them unable to believe and dare not believe that the risks are about to happen. Even in order to escape the scam, they will pull more people around them into the scam. And when I get into a huge risk, I have to pull more people to accompany me, so that my trauma will be shared with more people.
Second, the aperture effect. It refers to the fact that a certain quality of a person or an object has left a very good impression on people, and under the influence of this good impression, people will have a higher evaluation and trust in this person or other qualities of an object. For example, there was a group of people who went to the 4S store to take pictures with luxury cars in turn, and some people went to luxury hotels to take turns to take pictures. In fact, it is to use the aperture effect to package oneself, and under the influence of the aperture effect, the person's words and deeds will appear reliable and credible.
Third, the herd effect, which is simply understood as the thinking of following the crowd. When I see a lot of people doing this or choosing to do this, if I do something differently than them, I feel stressed and anxious, and most people do it, and I do it, and I can't be wrong. In Le Pen's book The Rabble, it is said that when an individual enters a group, his thinking and intelligence will be reduced.
How to distinguish such financial scams? This also has to start with human nature, since ancient times, people all over the world have almost made a fortune in silence, and this has nothing to do with morality, this is human nature. How to make a profit in business, this is also a trade secret, if a person pulls you to make money with great fanfare, and promises high returns, and you and this person is not a father-son-mother-son relationship, then most likely you are treated as a leek by this person.
Another human nature is to hide wealth, when you really have a big box of gold, you don't dare to show it off everywhere, deliberately show off, either he doesn't really have it, or he wants to pull you into the pit.