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Maria Konnikova

Writer, The New Yorker

Maria Konnikova is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: The Confidence Game , winner of the 2016 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes , an Anthony and Agatha Award finalist. Her new book, The Biggest Bluff , will be out from Penguin Press on June 23, 2020. While researching The Biggest Bluff , Konnikova became an international poker champion and the winner of over $300,000 in tournament earnings—and inadvertently turned into a professional poker player. She is a regular contributing writer for The New Yorker , and her writing has been featured in Best American Science and Nature Writing and has been translated into over twenty languages. Maria also hosts the podcast The Grift from Panoply Media, a show that explores con artists and the lives they ruin, and is currently a visiting fellow at NYU's School of Journalism. She graduated from Harvard University and received her PhD in psychology from Columbia University.

Why Do We Sigh? Honoring the Ig-Nobels, Continued

Today, another Ig-Nobel Prize installment, this time from the actual winner in Psychology, Karl Halvor Teigen. The question: why do we sigh? Is a sigh, as that all-time greatest song […]

Procrastination As The Secret to Achievement: Honoring This Year’s Ig-Nobel Winner John Perry

We become high achievers by working on something important—all the while procrastinating doing something even more important.

The Chameleon Outcast: When Social Mimicry Goes Awry

Being a chameleon is good only if your colors are changing in the right direction.

Blind Smell: A Reflection on Curiosity, Persistence, and New Discovery

Recently, while working on a piece about memory and smell, I came upon a concept that I’d never before heard about: blind smell. I’d read often enough about blindsight, the […]

Thinking your way to a better brain

Can the mind influence the brain?

A Little Touch Goes a Long Way: How Touch Influences Perception and Choice

Touch has always played an important role in our development and in our tendency to make certain judgments and take certain risks.

The Psychology of Remembering: A Memory Like a Journal

When we remember, what is it that we’re remembering? Do we try to recapture the appearance of a moment, like a photograph or a postcard that shows us a perfect […]

Time to Rename the Spoiler: Knowing How Something Ends May Actually Make It More Enjoyable

One of my favorite movies is When Harry Met Sally. I can watch it over and over and love it every single time—maybe even more than I did before. There’s […]

New Lessons from Holmes today on Scientific American

Lessons from Sherlock Holmes fans: a new installment of the series is now available at Scientific American, here. I will not be posting any more series updates on this blog, but you […]

The Perils of a Wandering Mind

Does a wandering mind make you less happy than a present mind? This question formed the basis of an important study by psychologists from Harvard University. The answer, I wasn’t surprised to find, is yes. Absolutely.

Want to Be Happier? Recalibrating Your Expectations Might Help

I’m hungry. I head to the fridge—but first, I shake my head and say mournfully to myself, there’s nothing to eat. I’m not looking forward to the process of choosing […]

How Do We Deal with Rare Events? A Postmortem of the Week that Shook and Stormed the East Coast

A 5.8 earthquake hits the East Cost. New Yorkers quake. Californians laugh. Along comes a Category 1—no wait, tropical storm—hurricane. Now, not all New Yorkers are quaking; instead, while some […]

Some Artful Updates: Lessons from Sherlock Holmes Moving to SciAm, and Some Twitter News

A few updates! First, Lessons from Sherlock Holmes is moving to a new home on Scientific American. So, Holmes fans can now read the column in a more continuous fashion. The […]

Behind The “Like” Button: Why We Share What We Share

OMG. I better tweet this. Or post it on Facebook. Or click that oh-so-tempting like button. Maybe tumblr? Stumbleupon? Some other sharing service that I’m too slow to have noted, […]

Counteracting the Violent Media Effect: The Media Can Inspire Us to Lend a Helping Hand

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that technology and, more specifically, time spent online might actually be helping people be friendlier, more empathetic, and in general, just […]

Are pets good for your health? Maybe. But Then Again, Maybe Not.

Pet owners are a unique breed. Even those that hadn’t wanted a pet often find themselves enthralled once they join the ranks of proud possessors of a furry (or not […]

Whether the Weather Be Fine Or Not Actually Matters: How the Weather Influences Decisions

It’s been raining and gloomy since Saturday night. I think the change of weather is nice. I don’t mind. But my brain does. And whether or not I know it, […]

Lessons from Sherlock Holmes Returns: Perspective is Everything, Details Alone Are Nothing

Details are important, often crucial. But focus exclusively on the details, without taking a step back, and you run the risk of getting lost in minutiae – and more likely […]

To Improve Self-control, Focus on the Long-term: Paying Attention Can Mean Making Better Choices

Which would you rather have: an apple or a Kit-Kat bar? It’s not an easy question. The answer depends on many factors, including how hungry you are, how much you […]

A Tip for Sounder Investment: When Markets Misbehave, Make Sure Your Emotions Don’t Follow

The markets are a mess. That doesn’t mean you or your investment reactions should be. When everything is going well, it doesn’t take all that much for good investors to […]

How to improve your athletic (and other) performance through self-talk

When researchers asked runners to repeat a specific phrase in their heads, like “push,” the runners performed substantially better than they had prior to the intervention.

Not to Fear; Sherlock Holmes Will Return (Along with Anything Else You Might Want to See in the Future)

Thanks to everyone who responded to last week’s request for thoughts on the Sherlock Holmes series that has taken up the blog for the last few weeks. I was surprised […]

Lessons from Sherlock Holmes Pt.III: Parting Wisdom from the Master Decision Maker

Today, we say goodbye to Sherlock Holmes (for the rest of the series, on the importance of true observation, seeing what isn’t there and not just what is, and preventing […]

Lessons from Sherlock Holmes Pt.II: Cultivate What You Know to Optimize How You Decide

Today’s lesson from Sherlock Holmes deals with learning to cull and to cultivate knowledge in such a way that your decision process will be optimized for the question at hand, […]

Lessons from Sherlock Holmes Pt.I: Paying Attention to What Isn’t There

Pay attention to what isn’t there, not just what is. Absence is just as important and just as telling as presence.

Don’t just see; observe: What Sherlock Holmes can teach us about mindful decisions

What it means to go beyond seeing and to actually observe.

The Pervasive Threat of Conformity: Peer Pressure Is Here to Stay

The Asch effect has been replicated successfully numerous times, in a variety of contexts, and each time, peer pressure glows strong.

Gender, Education, and the Gender Gap: Blame It On the Kids?

A recent study shows that the decision to have children, and especially to have them early, is a factor that contributes to women’s educational attainment.

Collectivism and Bribery: Diffusion of Responsibility Leads to Immoral Action

How does someone decide whether or not to offer a bribe? While there is a general consensus that bribery is not exactly the most moral act in the world, the […]

How to Improve Self-Control: Freedom from Your Hot Triggers

Self-control: we could all use more of it. Even those of us who are best at exercising self-control on a daily basis have so-called hot triggers, the special circumstances that would make us, too, lose our cool and start to behave less than rationally.