Book

Why Are We So Easily Fooled?

Mohammed Al-Baladi

Publication date: July 21, 2026 22:31 KSA

«He who can delude the masses becomes their master, and he who tries to remove illusions from their minds becomes their victim.»

This saying by the French physician and philosopher Gustave Le Bon is one of the most quoted that summarizes a deep aspect of human nature, and one of the closest to their lived reality... If you reflect on what happens around us, you become more convinced that the problem was never the existence of those who sell illusions, but rather humans' innate attraction to those who give them the feeling they love and are comfortable with, more than their inclination towards those who offer them the truth they need! Have you noticed how many people promise you wealth in a few months through books or programs, or those who assure you that success only requires passion, or those who simplify achieving happiness into five steps?! Amazingly, despite the reality that tells us every day that life is much more complex, this naive oversimplification still finds wide acceptance and a growing audience... As if people do not buy the truth, but rather buy easy hope, even if they know it is fake!

This comfortable deception has found in social media a vast space conducive to growth and expansion, because social media—I mean—does not reward the deeper idea, but the more exciting and faster-spreading one... even if it lacks logic or credibility. Therefore, it is easy today for a clip to spread that deludes people into thinking they can solve a complex problem in one minute, while the explanation of a specialized professor who spent years preparing it remains confined to a narrow circle; because the audience—often—does not choose between right and wrong, but between what comforts them and what does not, as we said. Hence, the second part of Le Bon's quote can be understood: those who try to remove illusions are not usually met with gratitude and acceptance, but with annoyance, ridicule, or even accusations and attacks; because the truth often requires a person to reconsider their convictions, admit their mistakes, and make extra effort, whereas illusion only asks for continued applause. That is why the doctor who forbids you from sugar is less popular than a friend who tells you, 'Ask an experienced person, not a doctor,' and the manager who candidly tells employees what they lack is less popular than one who hands out sweet talk. And the writer who criticizes a beloved illusion in society is less accepted than one who flatters and blames others for our problems. Indeed, the criterion for the quality of human content should not be how much it gives you a temporary feeling of satisfaction and comfort, but rather how much it expands your awareness, corrects your vision, and leaves an impact on you, even if it contradicts your beliefs or places some responsibility on you. Perhaps this issue is what made Gustave Le Bon's quote endure and remain relevant for over a century: despite the development of human societies in many things, they still easily gravitate towards those who give them what they love to hear, more than those who give them what they need!

Illusions truth deception success happiness satisfaction communication politeness