---
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title: "Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive"
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# Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive

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Buy Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive 1 by Schneier, Bruce (ISBN: 0892685001003) from desertcart's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

Review: Both well-researched and practical work on trust - Before I started reading "Liars and Outliars" I had never given much thought to the topic of trust in society. Of course, I had thought about security, but mainly from a technical standpoint: how to use it to secure myself and ourselves against threats from the outside. This book has taugt me how trust and security belong together and how the latter can be used to fill up the gaps that result from lacking the former. This book stands out, because both of its well-researched models and theories and because of its practicality: each of the main ideas is larded with examples that make understanding the presented ideas really easy. This book is divided in four parts. In the first part Schneier brings the reader up to par with the current state of the 'science of trust', as he calls it. In these chapters he talks about the way human beings and some animals cooperate, how cooperation developed in their respective species, what altruism is, and what a society is. This first section of the book ends with an interesting set of societal dilemmas and - most importantly - a framework by which each of these dilemmas can be understood. In this framework Schneier puts the societal (or group) interest over against the interest of the party (or person) that wants to defect. Part two of the book presents four pressures influencing every societal dilemma, namely societal, moral, reputational and institutional. Each one of these parts of this model of trust is described in detail and explained through examples. This part of the book ends with an overview of the topic of security and how it relates towards these pressures. In this chapter, Schneier shows once again how good and well-balanced security is necessary to counterbalance the different forms of trust. He also describes how security influences each of the four pressures. The first two parts of the book are quite theoretical and systemic, but legible and understandable nevertheless. In the third section Schneier takes his models into the real world, to see how they fit in. He does so from the perspective of competing interests within organizations (each group of people), corporations (different from individual people because they're no people with personal interests), and institutions (governmental groups, with their particular interests). What has kept with me after reading these chapters is that each 'society' has its own interests and that these interests do not always fit in with the interests of others. I believe that dissecting societal dilemmas through Schneier's model of trust really helps to gain a fuller understanding of the weight and content of the forces at work. The fourth and final part of the book contains three chapters with conclusions. For some part, these chapters are a repetition of the previous chapters. They contain, however, a kind of counterbalance to the well-reasoned and rational model of trust Schneier presented, because of the concept of the human psychology that sometimes gives us the desire to do things that are not so reasonable. Moreover, he describes some of the technological advances that have been made and will be made, and - more importantly - how both cooperators and defectors make use of technology. This section also holds a fiery speech in favor of well-reasoned, community-based, transparant, and general forms of security technology. In his last chapter Schneier once again makes sure that we understand that security is not something do once and then forget, it's a process that needs to be readjusted all the time. It's also important to keep in mind that society both needs cooperators and defectors (or outliers), since the latter group is able to foster innovation, that can be used to improve society for all of us.
Review: Buy two copies - I've followed Bruce's work for many years, so I had a good idea of what to expect from his latest work. It does not disappoint. Covering the evolution of security mechanisms, from the very small scale of a few personal friends up to the global institutions to which we trust much of our lives, Bruce examines in depth how we choose whether to trust or distrust other people and organisations, and how we decide how much regulation and technology is required to keep enough of them trustworthy enough for our societies to function. As a reader of Bruce's blog on schneier,com, I thought I would be reading things I'd already learnt, but I was wrong. There's a lot of new stuff here, and perhaps the best and most-lasting aspect is the presentation of a structure and language for talking about trust - I find I'm using the terms from Liars and Outliers intuitively any time I think about security. There's a good exposition of how our security systems fail, and what must be done to avoid such failures, which I think makes it essential reading for any company director or politician. You need two copies of this book - one to keep on your shelf to read, and re-read, and one to give to your (least-) favourite policymaker.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | 1118143302 |
| Best Sellers Rank | 1,035,534 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 5,434 in Web Administration 13,638 in Computer Science (Books) 117,978 in Social Sciences (Books) |
| Customer reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (54) |
| Dimensions  | 15.24 x 3.3 x 22.86 cm |
| Edition  | 1st |
| ISBN-10  | 9781118143308 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1118143308 |
| Item weight  | 1.05 kg |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 384 pages |
| Publication date  | 17 Feb. 2012 |
| Publisher  | Wiley |

## Images

![Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ulu4RF36L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Both well-researched and practical work on trust
*by H***S on 14 August 2012*

Before I started reading "Liars and Outliars" I had never given much thought to the topic of trust in society. Of course, I had thought about security, but mainly from a technical standpoint: how to use it to secure myself and ourselves against threats from the outside. This book has taugt me how trust and security belong together and how the latter can be used to fill up the gaps that result from lacking the former. This book stands out, because both of its well-researched models and theories and because of its practicality: each of the main ideas is larded with examples that make understanding the presented ideas really easy. This book is divided in four parts. In the first part Schneier brings the reader up to par with the current state of the 'science of trust', as he calls it. In these chapters he talks about the way human beings and some animals cooperate, how cooperation developed in their respective species, what altruism is, and what a society is. This first section of the book ends with an interesting set of societal dilemmas and - most importantly - a framework by which each of these dilemmas can be understood. In this framework Schneier puts the societal (or group) interest over against the interest of the party (or person) that wants to defect. Part two of the book presents four pressures influencing every societal dilemma, namely societal, moral, reputational and institutional. Each one of these parts of this model of trust is described in detail and explained through examples. This part of the book ends with an overview of the topic of security and how it relates towards these pressures. In this chapter, Schneier shows once again how good and well-balanced security is necessary to counterbalance the different forms of trust. He also describes how security influences each of the four pressures. The first two parts of the book are quite theoretical and systemic, but legible and understandable nevertheless. In the third section Schneier takes his models into the real world, to see how they fit in. He does so from the perspective of competing interests within organizations (each group of people), corporations (different from individual people because they're no people with personal interests), and institutions (governmental groups, with their particular interests). What has kept with me after reading these chapters is that each 'society' has its own interests and that these interests do not always fit in with the interests of others. I believe that dissecting societal dilemmas through Schneier's model of trust really helps to gain a fuller understanding of the weight and content of the forces at work. The fourth and final part of the book contains three chapters with conclusions. For some part, these chapters are a repetition of the previous chapters. They contain, however, a kind of counterbalance to the well-reasoned and rational model of trust Schneier presented, because of the concept of the human psychology that sometimes gives us the desire to do things that are not so reasonable. Moreover, he describes some of the technological advances that have been made and will be made, and - more importantly - how both cooperators and defectors make use of technology. This section also holds a fiery speech in favor of well-reasoned, community-based, transparant, and general forms of security technology. In his last chapter Schneier once again makes sure that we understand that security is not something do once and then forget, it's a process that needs to be readjusted all the time. It's also important to keep in mind that society both needs cooperators and defectors (or outliers), since the latter group is able to foster innovation, that can be used to improve society for all of us.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Buy two copies
*by T***T on 16 July 2012*

I've followed Bruce's work for many years, so I had a good idea of what to expect from his latest work. It does not disappoint. Covering the evolution of security mechanisms, from the very small scale of a few personal friends up to the global institutions to which we trust much of our lives, Bruce examines in depth how we choose whether to trust or distrust other people and organisations, and how we decide how much regulation and technology is required to keep enough of them trustworthy enough for our societies to function. As a reader of Bruce's blog on schneier,com, I thought I would be reading things I'd already learnt, but I was wrong. There's a lot of new stuff here, and perhaps the best and most-lasting aspect is the presentation of a structure and language for talking about trust - I find I'm using the terms from Liars and Outliers intuitively any time I think about security. There's a good exposition of how our security systems fail, and what must be done to avoid such failures, which I think makes it essential reading for any company director or politician. You need two copies of this book - one to keep on your shelf to read, and re-read, and one to give to your (least-) favourite policymaker.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Good Place to Start
*by J***R on 16 January 2013*

For the sake of full disclosure, I should acknowledge that I'm a big fan of Bruce Schneier; I think Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World is one of the best books that I've ever read and I also subscribe to Schneier's Cryto-Gram newsletter. I must also concede that I've an interest in the topics of altruism, cooperation, and trust in society as will many who have been exposed to the works of luminaries such as Richard Dawkins and Robert Trivers. So, I had great expectations for Liars & Outliers. However, Schneier's exposition on "the trust that society needs to thrive" left me a little disappointed. My problem with this book is that it is a straightforward (albeit, excellent) exposition on trust & cooperation; nothing more. There is no radical manifesto describing how society might better blend its cooperative instinct with technology to achieve the optimum balance of cooperation and defection; thus, it's not clear what this work adds to the subject's body of knowledge. This shortcoming is redeemed by Schneier's easy style and comprehensive coverage of the topics one expects (The Prisoner's Dilemma, The Hawk/Dove Model, and The Red Queen Effect). Moreover, Schneier explores in some depth the societal pressures that help to maintain defection at tolerable levels and considers how technology both helps and hinders society's effort to maintain cooperation. It is this, perhaps, that differentiates this book from others that address the same issues and makes it worth reading. Furthermore, the material is well researched and comprehensively referenced throughout and delivered with Schneier's trademark clarity. Whilst it may lack a certain novelty, the subject is lucidly presented and accessible: I can think of no more comprehensive introduction to the subject than Liars & Outliers - certainly, a good place to start.

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