Motives for Imposture (and Believing the Impostor)

A year or two ago I was shown this intriguing story discussed in The New Yorker about a man named Frédéric Bourdin who had spent years pretending to be various adolescent boys in several countries and was known as the "king of imposters" and eventually "the chameleon." He mostly impersonated runaways and orphans, but his most famous feat of imposture was of missing American teenager Nicholas Barclay, whose family was supposedly convinced that Bourdin was Nicholas. Bourdin himself admits that he attempted this particular con to avoid the police, but unlike those of the imposter basketball player I discussed recently, Bourdin's usual motives are mostly unclear. Even his frank confession in the New Yorker article, though thirteen pages long, only partially illuminates The Chameleon's intentions and psychology.

I am excited to see the film that has been made about Bourdin (entitled The Chameleon), mostly because I am interested to see how it portrays both Bourdin and Nicholas Barclay's family. It's hard to believe that a mother would confuse an impostor for her own son, and many people (including Bourdin himself) think that members of Barclay's family know what happened to the boy. This situation makes me wonder what lies we accept in what situations. Will we allow ourselves to be lied to in order to conceal our own lies? Or are we just more likely to believe anything we really want to believe, for whatever reason (it makes us feel good, it hides our own secrets, it helps someone)?