---
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title: "Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive"
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# Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive

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Buy Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive by Schneier, Bruce online on desertcart.ae at best prices. ✓ Fast and free shipping ✓ free returns ✓ cash on delivery available on eligible purchase.

Review: Schneier ist Kult, und zwar nicht nur, weil er eine sehr differenzierte Meinung zu vielen Sicherheitsfragen hat und diese - auch ausserhalb seines lesenswerten Blogs "Cryptogram" - auch kundtut. Vielmehr zeigt Schneier über seine Sachlichkeit eine Integrität, die an anderer Stelle in der Hitze der Debatte leider oft fehlt. Wie ein Vor-Rezensent es sinngemäss formuliert hat: "Es ist selten, dass Schneier nichts interessantes zu sagen hat." - und das gilt unabhängig davon, welcher politischen Strömung man in Bezug auf eine aktuelle Frage anhängt. Auf dem Umschlag das Zitat zur Person: "Das, was in der Security-Industrie einem Rockstar am nächsten kommt." Das spiegelt sowohl die positiven als auch die negativen Aspekte dieses Buchs wieder. Als Rockstar kommt er überall an - das Buch ist lesbar, sehr verständlich und gut strukturiert. Das erreicht er aber, wie bei seinen vorherigen Publikationen auch, durch sehr ausführliche Schilderungen und teilweise ermüdende Wiederholungen. Meiner Meinung nach wäre das Thema passender in einem konzisen 50 Seiten-Papier abgehandelt worden als in Buchform. Dennoch, die Darstellung des Vertrauensproblems, die von Schneier vorgenommene Strukturierung desselben und die Einbeziehung diverser, teilweise unvorhergesehener Rahmenparameter machen das Buch erwartungsgemäss lesenswert - wie immer bei Schneier: eine interessante Sicht auf die Dinge. Wobei dem potentiellen Leser klar sein muss: das Buch ist eher analytischer Natur als dass es Lösungen aufzeigt, und das ist dem Thema auch angemessen. Auch das eine Kernaussage des Buches: ohne umfassendes Problemverständnis muss jeder Lösungsansatz scheitern; und dieses Buch agiert eindeutig auf der Problemverständnis-Seite. Ein Stern Abzug wegen der erwähnten Überlänge und Wiederholung - dennoch inhaltlich top und klare Kaufempfehlung.
Review: Before I started reading "Liars and Outliars" I had never given much thought to the topic of trust in society. Of course, I had thought about security, but mainly from a technical standpoint: how to use it to secure myself and ourselves against threats from the outside. This book has taugt me how trust and security belong together and how the latter can be used to fill up the gaps that result from lacking the former. This book stands out, because both of its well-researched models and theories and because of its practicality: each of the main ideas is larded with examples that make understanding the presented ideas really easy. This book is divided in four parts. In the first part Schneier brings the reader up to par with the current state of the 'science of trust', as he calls it. In these chapters he talks about the way human beings and some animals cooperate, how cooperation developed in their respective species, what altruism is, and what a society is. This first section of the book ends with an interesting set of societal dilemmas and - most importantly - a framework by which each of these dilemmas can be understood. In this framework Schneier puts the societal (or group) interest over against the interest of the party (or person) that wants to defect. Part two of the book presents four pressures influencing every societal dilemma, namely societal, moral, reputational and institutional. Each one of these parts of this model of trust is described in detail and explained through examples. This part of the book ends with an overview of the topic of security and how it relates towards these pressures. In this chapter, Schneier shows once again how good and well-balanced security is necessary to counterbalance the different forms of trust. He also describes how security influences each of the four pressures. The first two parts of the book are quite theoretical and systemic, but legible and understandable nevertheless. In the third section Schneier takes his models into the real world, to see how they fit in. He does so from the perspective of competing interests within organizations (each group of people), corporations (different from individual people because they're no people with personal interests), and institutions (governmental groups, with their particular interests). What has kept with me after reading these chapters is that each 'society' has its own interests and that these interests do not always fit in with the interests of others. I believe that dissecting societal dilemmas through Schneier's model of trust really helps to gain a fuller understanding of the weight and content of the forces at work. The fourth and final part of the book contains three chapters with conclusions. For some part, these chapters are a repetition of the previous chapters. They contain, however, a kind of counterbalance to the well-reasoned and rational model of trust Schneier presented, because of the concept of the human psychology that sometimes gives us the desire to do things that are not so reasonable. Moreover, he describes some of the technological advances that have been made and will be made, and - more importantly - how both cooperators and defectors make use of technology. This section also holds a fiery speech in favor of well-reasoned, community-based, transparant, and general forms of security technology. In his last chapter Schneier once again makes sure that we understand that security is not something do once and then forget, it's a process that needs to be readjusted all the time. It's also important to keep in mind that society both needs cooperators and defectors (or outliers), since the latter group is able to foster innovation, that can be used to improve society for all of us.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| ASIN  | 1118143302 |
| Best Sellers Rank | #154,399 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #200 in Business Ethics #265 in Computer History & Culture #319 in Computer Security & Encryption |
| Customer reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (49) |
| Dimensions  | 15.24 x 3.3 x 22.86 cm |
| Edition  | 1st |
| ISBN-10  | 9781118143308 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1118143308 |
| Item weight  | 1.05 Kilograms |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 384 pages |
| Publication date  | 17 February 2012 |
| Publisher  | Wiley |

## Images

![Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ulu4RF36L.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by D***N on 21 September 2013*

Schneier ist Kult, und zwar nicht nur, weil er eine sehr differenzierte Meinung zu vielen Sicherheitsfragen hat und diese - auch ausserhalb seines lesenswerten Blogs "Cryptogram" - auch kundtut. Vielmehr zeigt Schneier über seine Sachlichkeit eine Integrität, die an anderer Stelle in der Hitze der Debatte leider oft fehlt. Wie ein Vor-Rezensent es sinngemäss formuliert hat: "Es ist selten, dass Schneier nichts interessantes zu sagen hat." - und das gilt unabhängig davon, welcher politischen Strömung man in Bezug auf eine aktuelle Frage anhängt. Auf dem Umschlag das Zitat zur Person: "Das, was in der Security-Industrie einem Rockstar am nächsten kommt." Das spiegelt sowohl die positiven als auch die negativen Aspekte dieses Buchs wieder. Als Rockstar kommt er überall an - das Buch ist lesbar, sehr verständlich und gut strukturiert. Das erreicht er aber, wie bei seinen vorherigen Publikationen auch, durch sehr ausführliche Schilderungen und teilweise ermüdende Wiederholungen. Meiner Meinung nach wäre das Thema passender in einem konzisen 50 Seiten-Papier abgehandelt worden als in Buchform. Dennoch, die Darstellung des Vertrauensproblems, die von Schneier vorgenommene Strukturierung desselben und die Einbeziehung diverser, teilweise unvorhergesehener Rahmenparameter machen das Buch erwartungsgemäss lesenswert - wie immer bei Schneier: eine interessante Sicht auf die Dinge. Wobei dem potentiellen Leser klar sein muss: das Buch ist eher analytischer Natur als dass es Lösungen aufzeigt, und das ist dem Thema auch angemessen. Auch das eine Kernaussage des Buches: ohne umfassendes Problemverständnis muss jeder Lösungsansatz scheitern; und dieses Buch agiert eindeutig auf der Problemverständnis-Seite. Ein Stern Abzug wegen der erwähnten Überlänge und Wiederholung - dennoch inhaltlich top und klare Kaufempfehlung.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by H***S on 14 August 2012*

Before I started reading "Liars and Outliars" I had never given much thought to the topic of trust in society. Of course, I had thought about security, but mainly from a technical standpoint: how to use it to secure myself and ourselves against threats from the outside. This book has taugt me how trust and security belong together and how the latter can be used to fill up the gaps that result from lacking the former. This book stands out, because both of its well-researched models and theories and because of its practicality: each of the main ideas is larded with examples that make understanding the presented ideas really easy. This book is divided in four parts. In the first part Schneier brings the reader up to par with the current state of the 'science of trust', as he calls it. In these chapters he talks about the way human beings and some animals cooperate, how cooperation developed in their respective species, what altruism is, and what a society is. This first section of the book ends with an interesting set of societal dilemmas and - most importantly - a framework by which each of these dilemmas can be understood. In this framework Schneier puts the societal (or group) interest over against the interest of the party (or person) that wants to defect. Part two of the book presents four pressures influencing every societal dilemma, namely societal, moral, reputational and institutional. Each one of these parts of this model of trust is described in detail and explained through examples. This part of the book ends with an overview of the topic of security and how it relates towards these pressures. In this chapter, Schneier shows once again how good and well-balanced security is necessary to counterbalance the different forms of trust. He also describes how security influences each of the four pressures. The first two parts of the book are quite theoretical and systemic, but legible and understandable nevertheless. In the third section Schneier takes his models into the real world, to see how they fit in. He does so from the perspective of competing interests within organizations (each group of people), corporations (different from individual people because they're no people with personal interests), and institutions (governmental groups, with their particular interests). What has kept with me after reading these chapters is that each 'society' has its own interests and that these interests do not always fit in with the interests of others. I believe that dissecting societal dilemmas through Schneier's model of trust really helps to gain a fuller understanding of the weight and content of the forces at work. The fourth and final part of the book contains three chapters with conclusions. For some part, these chapters are a repetition of the previous chapters. They contain, however, a kind of counterbalance to the well-reasoned and rational model of trust Schneier presented, because of the concept of the human psychology that sometimes gives us the desire to do things that are not so reasonable. Moreover, he describes some of the technological advances that have been made and will be made, and - more importantly - how both cooperators and defectors make use of technology. This section also holds a fiery speech in favor of well-reasoned, community-based, transparant, and general forms of security technology. In his last chapter Schneier once again makes sure that we understand that security is not something do once and then forget, it's a process that needs to be readjusted all the time. It's also important to keep in mind that society both needs cooperators and defectors (or outliers), since the latter group is able to foster innovation, that can be used to improve society for all of us.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Review
*by R***1 on 21 February 2012*

This is a superb book. First, it's immensely readable and filled with an incredible amount of information about how societies evolved and work (and why not). More importantly, however, Bruce has identified what is probably the most important issue facing all of us today. Trust. Without trust, society doesn't work. But look around: we don't trust the government, we don't trust big business, and we don't trust banks or anyone on Wall Street. (There's a much longer list, but you get the idea.) Our existing models of trust and mechanisms for dealing with defectors don't scale to either the size of the Internet or the flood of information that's so readily available. Once upon a time, perhaps in a fairy tale, we actually knew our elected representatives, and they counted on us to fund their election campaigns. Now it's PACs and SuperPACs and we're irrelevant. If your elected representative parties a bit too much while away from home, or too obviously is influenced by the hordes of lobbyists, or actually admits their ignorance in a committee meeting, you'll know about it instantly. Once upon a time, we were "protected" from that knowledge because it simply didn't deserve space in the newspaper and wasn't entertaining enough to for the local TV news. Otto von Bismarck observed that "laws are like sausages; it's better not to see them made." That sentiment also applies to lawmakers. In that same fairy tale, you worked your entire life for one company, then took your gold watch and retired to a life of leisure, supported by a retirement fund almost wholly funded by your employer. That is, unless your employer repaid your loyalty by "riffing" you or was so ineptly managed that the company eventually went bankrupt, taking your retirement income with it. Or perhaps you worked your entire life for a local government that "promised" generous pension benefits and lifetime healthcare. Unfortunately, the people who made those promises were never required to figure out how to pay for them, and the day of reckoning is now very near. And then there's the marvelous fantasy about how the equity in your home will eventually fund your move to a tropical island. The folks on Wall Street have already spent your home equity on yachts and ski chalets and putting their kids through expensive colleges. I'd sure like to see the Presidential candidates debate this topic. Unfortunately, none of them would be the least bit credible. Read Bruce's book to find out whether our society can survive.

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*Last updated: 2026-02-21*