Center for Information and Bubble Studies, University of Copenhagen

Review of Sucker Nation in Forbes, 01.06.2026.

Why Leaders Need To Know How Not To Be Suckers Needing to be seen to be doing "the right thing" can make it hard for executives to be decisive. But their success depends to a great extent on not being played.

Sucker Nation: The Philosophy of Trading Wits for Vanity is now out with Springer Nature:

Sucker Nation Vincent F. Hendricks’s Sucker Nation asks the questions ‘Why do intelligent, informed people continue to participate in systems they privately distrust?’

New book from Vincent F. Hendricks on the way: Sucker Nation: The Philosophy of Trading Wits for Vanity, New York: Springer/Nature, May 2026.

Why do intelligent, informed people continue to participate in systems they privately distrust? Why does exploitation persist even when manipulation is widely recognized? SUCKER NATION argues that the answer lies in a structural hustler/sucker distinction—not a matter of intelligence or morality, but of epistemic asymmetry and failed common knowledge. Drawing on game theory, epistemic logic, and the philosophy of attention, it shows how rational agents can become trapped in equilibria where acting reasonably still means paying a price: Trading wits for vanity …

From financial markets and crypto bubbles to political communication, online scams, platform society, academia and even agency itself becomes the resource that others extract. To act, one must be visible; to be visible is to be exploitable. Insight does not dissolve this condition—it clarifies it. What remains is a tragic form of agency: damaged, unavoidable and still necessary.

Read more here: https://www.vince-inc.com/vincent/?p=9490

Vincent F. Hendricks om julegaver i technofeudalismens tid: Hvad du ønsker, skal *de* få. Selv når det gælder vores julegaveønsker, er vi som brugere produktet.

I Kommentarserien (udenfor betalingsmuren) – link i tråd

NU Laura Jahn, Rasmus K. Rendsvig, Alessandro Flammini, Filippo Menczer og Vincent F. Hendricks i Nature - Portfolio Journal - on Complexity:

A perspective on friction interventions to curb the spread of misinformation - npj Complexity Social media has enabled the spread of information at unprecedented speeds and scales, and with it the proliferation of high-engagement, low-quality content. Friction—behavioral design measures that make the sharing of content more cumbersome—might be a way to raise the quality of what is spread...

Here we go ...

Egoismus. Gruppendenken. Manipulation.
Klingt nach Politik – betrifft aber uns alle.
👉 Feiglinge und Gauner von Vincent F. Hendricks analysiert die Psychologie hinter unserem Verhalten und zeigt, wie wir echte Freiheit und Verbindung zurückgewinnen können.
📚 Ab 6. Oktober erhältlich.

... så er den tyske NOK OM MIG på trapperne:

🤔 „Was ist mit mir?!“ – Kennst du den Gedanken?
Vincent F. Hendricks zeigt in Feiglinge und Gauner, warum Egoismus unsere Gesellschaft vergiftet und wie wir den Kreislauf durchbrechen.
📖 Ab 6. Oktober im Buchhandel.

Vincent Hendricks brugte de sidste to år af sin gymnasietid på at undgå at tale med sine medstuderende og søge helt ind i sig selv. I dag bruger han sin stemme i den offentlige debat til bl.a. at tale om det meningsfulde liv. Hans seneste bog handler netop om det og om at balancere mellem det nødvendige, det mulige og dine forventninger til livet.
Vincent Hendricks, professor i formel filosofi, er ugens gæst - om følelsen af ikke at kunne finde ud af de sociale koder, om vejen til at blive en anerkendt professor og om at definere, hvad der egentlig er nødvendigt i menneskers liv.