Theranos was once the start-up darling of Silicon Valley: It had a $9 billion valuation and claimed its technology could accurately run hundreds of tests on a few drops of blood. Then it was revealed to be a fraud.
Much of it is the psychology behind deception, says Dan Ariely, a behavioral expert whom Holmes sought out for advice as things started to fall apart and who appears in the documentary"The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley," which premiered Monday on HBO. In that way, he cautions, Holmes may not be so different from the rest of us.
In fact, when Deeter spent several hours with Holmes trying to persuade her to be interviewed for the documentary,"there was no sign of mea culpa," Deeter says, adding that Holmes seemed more interested in having a film document what she believed would be Theranos'"Phoenix-like rise back to power." It's a psychological concept called source monitoring:"When our brain gets a message, we don't separate very well the statement and where it came from, and we can often get very confused … and not remember," says Ariely."It's why fake news works so well."
Indeed, according to a study Ariely details in"The Inventor," people actually lie more when it's for something positive, like charity. And they don't feel emotionally conflicted about the lie. That's because they can lie and still think of themselves as a good person, Ariely says in the documentary.
"[I]f you think about the people who invested in [Holmes] with very little amount of data, it's about emotional appeal and having trust and believing the story and being moved by this, and being able to tell themselves a story."
MakeIt Check out the 20/20 story on you tube. She's odd.
MakeIt A Houston inner looper, St Johns HS alumn
MakeIt A piece of work. That documentary about her was eye opening. Too bad the tech didn't match the hype.
MakeIt Like the FEDS
MakeIt Time for stretch incarcerated. $$$ just wont’t do it. 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼 thief, con artist, unethical.
MakeIt ...there must be some/many parallels with that deceiver-in-chief, trump
MakeIt I still think she and Zuckerberg are androids.
MakeIt How to avoid deception: I rarely fully trust & have learned that it is possible for everything to be good & bad at the same time. This view allows me to be open and accepting of ALL information. If enough contrary truthful ideas accumulate, my ideas have to be re-evaluated.
MakeIt Can't wait to see this on AmericanGreedTV
MakeIt The media did not bother themselves with fact-checking. They (you) promoted her regardless of the facts.
MakeIt She should have gone into central banking....