Suckers in Law
Abstract
The fear of being suckered is such a strong social and psychological
phenomenon that political movements, and bodies of law, have been built
around it. This review offers a framework for understanding how the
psychology of feeling suckered affects legal decision-making. Feeling
exploited or scammed is a core and widely shared aversion, and yet also a
malleable construct, subject to framing effects and triggered (or
untriggered) by subtle situational cues. The stakes for the sucker
inference are high; people worried about being cheated predictably react
by refusing to cooperate in prosocial activities, and by retaliating.
The flight-or-fight response has deep implications for legal
decision-making, undermining investment in cooperative enterprises,
dispute settlement, and efficient social policy. Finally, the review
considers the unique ambivalence toward suckers themselves—the competing
feelings of sympathy and scorn—and how that ambivalence plays into
underreporting of legal harms, misattributions of consent, and victim
blaming. I conclude by suggesting that the ambivalence offers
opportunities for productive legal interventions to reward trust.
