Impulsivity and the Fallacy Of Waiting a Few Seconds to Avoid Scams
Impulsivity and Scam Victim’s Vulnerability: Understanding the Connection
Primary Category: Psychology of Scams
Author:
• Vianey Gonzalez B.Sc(Psych) – Psychologist, Certified Deception Professional, Psychology Advisory Panel & Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
• Tim McGuinness, Ph.D. – Anthropologist, Scientist, Director of the Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
About This Article
Impulsivity can deeply affect scam victims during and after a scam, making it difficult for them to recover emotionally and financially. The emotional manipulation that scammers use is designed to exploit impulsive behaviors, pushing victims into quick, unthinking decisions.
After a scam, victims often continue to experience impulsive reactions, such as rushing into new relationships or attempting to recover lost money through risky means, which only exacerbates their situation. Impulsivity also hinders recovery as victims may struggle with the patience needed for long-term healing programs.
By recognizing these tendencies and using tools like mindfulness and structured support, victims can take the necessary steps to manage impulsive behavior and progress toward a healthier recovery.
PSEUDOSCIENCE WARNING:
Beware of any recommendations or assertions that waiting 9-10 seconds can help prevent romance or investment scams.
This is nonsense!
Waiting a few seconds CAN be helpful in cases of not clicking a fake or dangerous email link. This allows the logical part of your brain to catch up and make a better decision.
However, it has NO EFFECT on emotionally charged decisions such as becoming involved with a scammer or sending money in a romance or investment scam. It takes MUCH LONGER for the amygdala and reward system in the brain to reset, the neurotransmitters and hormones to flush out, and short-term memory to purge.
The wait 9-10 second campaigns are based primarily on ‘gratification studies’ where people made a better self-gratification decision if they waited some seconds, such as eating one piece of candy now or waiting some time and getting 2 pieces of candy. But they have nothing to do with a hyperactive amygdala or reward system.
The exact time delay is not precisely known due to a lack of specific studies, but it is estimated to take at least 24 to 48 hours to reset the emotional triggers that compel someone to act under manipulation – assuming that there has been no additional reinforcement by the manipulator. This is why the scammers create such a sense of urgency, they cannot afford their victims to escape their control.
In the case of other addicts, the time delay could need to be weeks or months.
In our professional opinion, such Take 9 or Take 5 or 10, or whatever campaigns create a false sense of safety by leading potential and actual victims into believing that there is an easy fix to a complex cognitive challenge. Additionally, suppose someone follows such campaigns takes their advice and still ends up in a scam. In that case, the victim will tend to blame themselves thinking they somehow failed to follow the advice or strategy, when in fact, the strategy was seriously flawed.
The bottom line is that campaigns that promise quick fixes to scams and cybercrime are at best useless, and at worse can be just as deceiving as the scams themselves.
We encourage you to research the science for yourself – here is one such study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763418300344
Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.
Impulsivity and Scam Victim’s Vulnerability: Understanding the Connection
What is Impulsivity?
Impulsivity refers to the tendency to act on a whim, without fully considering the potential consequences. People who exhibit impulsive behavior may struggle with decision-making, finding it difficult to pause and evaluate a situation before reacting. This characteristic can manifest in two key ways: impetuous behaviors, where a person acts rashly or without forethought, and addictive behaviors, where impulsivity drives repetitive actions despite negative outcomes. These tendencies are often linked to emotional regulation, self-control, and reward systems in the brain.
The Role of Impulsivity in Scams
Victims of scams, particularly romance scams, investment frauds, or other manipulative schemes, often display impulsive behaviors that make them more susceptible to deception. Scammers exploit these tendencies by creating situations that appeal to their victims’ emotional or psychological vulnerabilities, pressuring them to make quick decisions without considering the full scope of the situation.
However, let’s be very clear, even people who do not display impulsivity before the scam can become the victim of a scam. This is only one factor among many that can contribute. What can be important though is that during the scam, victims exhibit more impulsivity due to the manipulation and control by the criminals – this is important to understand.
Emotional Manipulation and Impulsivity: Scammers are highly skilled in creating emotionally charged scenarios. Whether it’s an emergency situation or a romantic plea for financial help, these scenarios trigger impulsive reactions. Victims, overwhelmed by the urgency or emotion of the moment, may act without fully processing the red flags that would typically alert them to a scam.
Risky Decision-Making: Impulsive individuals tend to engage in riskier decision-making. Scammers often use time-sensitive offers, limited-time opportunities, or threats of loss to induce panic or excitement, pushing victims to make hasty decisions. A victim may be tempted to send money quickly, share personal information, or commit to an investment, driven by the emotional high or fear of missing out.
Addictive Behaviors and Scams: For some, impulsivity can lead to addictive behaviors, such as compulsive gambling or repeated involvement in risky financial ventures. Scammers may exploit these tendencies by presenting seemingly lucrative investment opportunities, leading victims to repeatedly invest money, even after they’ve lost substantial amounts. The cycle of impulsivity and reward-seeking creates a loop where victims continue engaging despite mounting losses.
Impulsivity in the Brain: Why it Happens
Impulsivity is linked to specific areas of the brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making and self-control, and the striatum, which is the brain’s reward system. When someone engages in impulsive behavior, their brain’s reward system (driven by dopamine) is activated, pushing them to seek immediate gratification without considering long-term consequences.
In the case of scam victims, the emotional or financial promises made by scammers can trigger this reward system. As a result, victims may continue engaging with the scammer, anticipating a reward (such as love, financial gain, or approval) despite the evidence that they are being deceived. The manipulation of this neural reward system makes it difficult for impulsive individuals to disengage, even when faced with clear signs of a scam.
How Impulsivity Leads to Vulnerability in Scams
Immediate Gratification Over Long-Term Thinking
Many scams rely on victims making quick decisions, whether it’s transferring money, providing sensitive information, or committing to investments. Impulsive individuals, who seek immediate gratification, are more likely to fall into these traps. Scammers often prey on this by offering “quick wins” or urgent scenarios that bypass rational, long-term thinking.
Emotional Reactivity
Impulsive individuals are often more emotionally reactive, making them prime targets for emotional manipulation by scammers. Whether it’s a “romantic partner” claiming to need financial help or a fraudster playing on fear and urgency, scammers push for quick decisions in emotionally heightened moments. The victim’s impulsive nature overrides their ability to process the situation logically.
Difficulty with Delayed Gratification
Impulsivity also plays a role in a person’s difficulty delaying gratification. Scammers exploit this by offering rewards that seem immediate or just within reach, whether it’s a “quick financial return” or a promise of love. Victims may send money or personal information in the hope of receiving a payoff that never comes, driven by the anticipation of an instant reward.
Again, remember that this is one part of the puzzle. Victims who may have impulsivity challenges may be more likely to send more money and also be subjected to multiple scams.
Impulsivity During the Scam
Impulsivity can have a significant impact on scam victims both during and after their recovery. Here’s how it plays a role:
Emotional Reactions
Scam victims often experience intense emotions like anger, shame, guilt, or grief. Impulsivity can amplify these feelings, leading to rash decisions such as confronting the scammer (even after realizing the scam), trying to recover the lost funds through desperate or risky means, or lashing out at loved ones or support providers. Impulsive behavior here is often driven by the emotional pain and betrayal they feel, which clouds their judgment.
Seeking Immediate Relief (Impatience)
Impulsivity drives the need for instant relief from emotional pain. Victims often impulsively engage in actions to quickly “fix” the problem, such as spending money, falling into another scam in an attempt to recover losses, or seeking revenge. This cycle can worsen their situation and lead to further psychological and financial harm.
Trusting Again Too Quickly
Scam victims, especially those recovering from romance scams, may impulsively jump into new relationships or trusting scenarios without proper caution, in an attempt to fill the emotional void left by the scam. This leaves them vulnerable to being victimized again by similar scams or exploitative individuals.
Impulsivity During Recovery
Impulsive Decision-Making in Financial Recovery
Victims often seek ways to recover their lost money, and impulsivity can lead them to pursue risky or fraudulent schemes to recover their money or regain their financial footing. Desperation can cloud their ability to thoroughly evaluate decisions, leaving them exposed to further exploitation.
Difficulty Following Recovery Programs
Recovery programs, like those provided by organizations such as SCARS (Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams), often require patience and careful steps. Impulsivity and reactivity make it difficult for victims to stick with long-term recovery strategies, as they may become frustrated or impatient with the slow progress and look for quick fixes.
Emotional Dysregulation
Recovery from a scam requires working through complex emotional trauma. Impulsive reactions to emotions, such as anger, frustration, or sadness, can lead to avoidance of necessary healing steps like therapy, support groups, or introspective work. Emotional impulsivity often hinders the ability to process grief and move forward constructively.
Managing Impulsivity in Recovery
Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Techniques like mindfulness help victims recognize and manage impulsive behaviors by allowing them to pause, reflect, and make more thoughtful decisions. CBT helps victims reframe their impulsive thoughts and create healthier emotional responses.
Support Systems: Engaging with structured support systems, like those offered by SCARS Institute, provides scam victims with accountability and guidance, helping them avoid making impulsive choices that could derail their recovery.
Understanding how impulsivity manifests in scam victims during recovery is critical for professionals and loved ones supporting them. The combination of emotional trauma and impulsivity can delay or undermine recovery, making patience, structured support, and therapeutic intervention key elements of long-term healing.
Recognizing and Addressing Impulsivity to Prevent Scams
Preventing impulsive behavior can be key to avoiding scams. Here are some strategies that can help individuals recognize and manage their impulsivity:
Pause Before Acting
Taking a moment to pause and reflect before making any decision can help break the impulsivity cycle for anyone. However, scam victims are often pressured to act immediately as a result of their manipulation and control. So this idea will NOT help during a scam, but it might help prevent the next one. A pause of 24 hours to 48 hours is best.
Develop Emotional Awareness
Becoming more aware of emotional triggers can help impulsive individuals recognize when they are being impulsive. Changing behavior to always put off any decisions for a while will have a positive impact, and then analyzing your feelings about a decision can help identify if your are predisposed or biased to a particular decision. Remember, reacting in decision-making is never the right thing to do.
Create a Support System
Having a trusted network of family, friends, or advisors to consult before making any significant decisions can help impulsive individuals avoid scams. Scam victims often feel isolated, but reaching out for a second opinion can help prevent rash actions. Just the act of taking the time it takes to talk to someone is a significant step in reducing impulsivity.
Engage in Educational Programs
Educational programs like the SCARS Institute’s Scam Survivor’s School (www.SCARSeducation.org) help potential scam victims understand how scams work and how scammers exploit impulsivity. By educating themselves on the psychological manipulation tactics used in scams, victims can learn to recognize and resist impulsive urges. Learning to understand your reactive and impulsive nature is a major step in the right direction.
What the Research Tells Us
There isn’t much direct, conclusive evidence that waiting specific periods of time prevents emotionally charged or manipulative decision-making, but the principle of delaying before making decisions is supported by research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Here are some of the Relevant Research:
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
The strategy of delaying action aligns with techniques used in CBT to regulate impulsive behavior. In the case of impulsive decisions (but not manipulated ones) pausing allows the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for rational thought) to engage, which is key when emotional triggers activate the amygdala, the brain’s emotional center. The delay in response is meant to interrupt automatic emotional responses and allow for more thoughtful decision-making.
Dual-System Theory
The dual-system theory in psychology distinguishes between two cognitive processes: System 1, which is fast, automatic, and emotional, and System 2, which is slower, deliberate, and rational. Waiting 10 seconds might provide a momentary pause for the slower, more deliberate system to engage, thereby reducing the likelihood of impulsive decisions. However, again, this will not prevent manipulated decisions and actions.
Emotion Regulation and Mindfulness
Techniques like mindfulness emphasize creating a moment of pause to reduce the impact of emotional triggers. This aligns with research showing that mindfulness-based practices can reduce emotional reactivity and improve decision-making by helping individuals respond less impulsively.
Support from Delay of Gratification Research:
Walter Mischel’s Marshmallow Test and follow-up studies demonstrate that individuals who can delay gratification (even for a short time) tend to have better long-term outcomes. Again, this does not apply to manipulated decisions that a scam victim will make during the course of a scam. Once the grooming begins victims lose their control.
Summary
Impulsivity plays a significant role in making individuals more vulnerable to scams. The emotional manipulation, urgency, and false promises scammers use are designed to exploit impulsive tendencies, pushing victims into quick, often irrational decisions. By understanding the brain mechanisms behind impulsivity and learning strategies to manage these behaviors, potential scam victims can protect themselves more effectively. Education, emotional awareness, and building a support system are essential tools for recognizing scams and preventing impulsive actions that lead to financial and emotional loss.
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Important Information for New Scam Victims
- Please visit www.ScamVictimsSupport.org – a SCARS Website for New Scam Victims & Sextortion Victims
- SCARS Institute now offers a free recovery program at www.SCARSeducation.org
- Please visit www.ScamPsychology.org – to more fully understand the psychological concepts involved in scams and scam victim recovery
If you are looking for local trauma counselors please visit counseling.AgainstScams.org or join SCARS for our counseling/therapy benefit: membership.AgainstScams.org
If you need to speak with someone now, you can dial 988 or find phone numbers for crisis hotlines all around the world here: www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines
Statement About Victim Blaming
Some of our articles discuss various aspects of victims. This is both about better understanding victims (the science of victimology) and their behaviors and psychology. This helps us to educate victims/survivors about why these crimes happened and to not blame themselves, better develop recovery programs, and to help victims avoid scams in the future. At times this may sound like blaming the victim, but it does not blame scam victims, we are simply explaining the hows and whys of the experience victims have.
These articles, about the Psychology of Scams or Victim Psychology – meaning that all humans have psychological or cognitive characteristics in common that can either be exploited or work against us – help us all to understand the unique challenges victims face before, during, and after scams, fraud, or cybercrimes. These sometimes talk about some of the vulnerabilities the scammers exploit. Victims rarely have control of them or are even aware of them, until something like a scam happens and then they can learn how their mind works and how to overcome these mechanisms.
Articles like these help victims and others understand these processes and how to help prevent them from being exploited again or to help them recover more easily by understanding their post-scam behaviors. Learn more about the Psychology of Scams at www.ScamPsychology.org
A Note About Labeling!
We often use the term ‘scam victim’ in our articles, but this is a convenience to help those searching for information in search engines like Google. It is just a convenience and has no deeper meaning. If you have come through such an experience, YOU are a Survivor! It was not your fault. You are not alone! Axios!
SCARS Resources:
- Getting Started: ScamVictimsSupport.org
- FREE enrollment in the SCARS Institute training programs for scam victims SCARSeducation.org
- For New Victims of Relationship Scams newvictim.AgainstScams.org
- Subscribe to SCARS Newsletter newsletter.againstscams.org
- Sign up for SCARS professional support & recovery groups, visit support.AgainstScams.org
- Find competent trauma counselors or therapists, visit counseling.AgainstScams.org
- Become a SCARS Member and get free counseling benefits, visit membership.AgainstScams.org
- Report each and every crime, learn how to at reporting.AgainstScams.org
- Learn more about Scams & Scammers at RomanceScamsNOW.com and ScamsNOW.com
- Learn more about the Psychology of Scams and Scam Victims: ScamPsychology.org
- Self-Help Books for Scam Victims are at shop.AgainstScams.org
- Donate to SCARS and help us help others at donate.AgainstScams.org
- Worldwide Crisis Hotlines: International Suicide Hotlines – OpenCounseling : OpenCounseling
- Campaign To End Scam Victim Blaming – 2024 (scamsnow.com)
Psychology Disclaimer:
All articles about psychology and the human brain on this website are for information & education only
The information provided in this and other SCARS articles are intended for educational and self-help purposes only and should not be construed as a substitute for professional therapy or counseling.
Note about Mindfulness: Mindfulness practices have the potential to create psychological distress for some individuals. Please consult a mental health professional or experienced meditation instructor for guidance should you encounter difficulties.
While any self-help techniques outlined herein may be beneficial for scam victims seeking to recover from their experience and move towards recovery, it is important to consult with a qualified mental health professional before initiating any course of action. Each individual’s experience and needs are unique, and what works for one person may not be suitable for another.
Additionally, any approach may not be appropriate for individuals with certain pre-existing mental health conditions or trauma histories. It is advisable to seek guidance from a licensed therapist or counselor who can provide personalized support, guidance, and treatment tailored to your specific needs.
If you are experiencing significant distress or emotional difficulties related to a scam or other traumatic event, please consult your doctor or mental health provider for appropriate care and support.
If you are in crisis, feeling desperate, or in despair please call 988 or your local crisis hotline.
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A impulsividade é tão aditiva como as drogas e o álcool. Neste caso, é uma busca de prazer a longo prazo, já li que pode ser uma dependência dopamina (não me lembro do autor, o livro chama-se Dopamina) e não uma aqui e agora, por isso é que as vítimas quando são alvos de romanscam que fazem planos de futuro, investem o seu dinheiro e a sua dopamina cai quando este termina, elas nem pensam duas vezes cair noutra relação do mesmo tipo. Ainda bem que existe um Grupo como SCARS que as protege desta vulnerabililidade.