Law and psychology professor Tess Wilkinson-Ryan writes in a recent Aeon.co essay, "Don’t let them fool you," that the fear of being duped is ubiquitous, and excessive scepticism makes it harder to trust one another and cooperate. She cites three experimental psychologists who--somewhat tongue-in-cheek--coined the term "sugrophobia" to name the familiar and specific dread that people experience when they get the inkling that they’re ‘being a sucker.’
"Sugrophobia" is a veritable epidemic and cultural obsession
Prof. Wilkinson-Ryan thinks that it seems almost ridiculous for psychologists to study suckers academically, but soon it became clear to her that sugrophobia is not only real but a veritable epidemic--a cultural obsession suggested by such terms as "pawn," "dupe," "chump," "fool," "stooge," "loser," and "mark." And she finds good evidence that the aversion to being suckered contaminates decision-making even when it isn’t doing anything useful, and that this aversion extends from the choices to we make as individuals to the society-wide narratives that sow distrust and discrimination,
Read in full Prof. Wilkinson-Ryan's essay "Don’t let them fool you" in the June 2, 2023 issue of Aeon.co now!
