The Cost of Faking it(creates counterfeit self)

Psychology Today ^ | 05/25/10 | Daniel R. Hawes

[TigerLikesRooster]

The Cost of Faking it

Published on May 25, 2010

There's a saying that clothes don't make the man, but a lot of times the clothes we wear (accessories and tattoos included) do actually say something about who we are. (If you're famous, it may even happen that the clothes you don't wear say something about who you are).

Besides signaling to others, clothes obviously also have an effect on how we feel about ourselves, and as a recent study shows, this sense of self that we derive from certain clothing produces measurable behavior changes. In particular, the study which was conducted by Francesca Gina, Michael Norton and Dan Ariely and appeared in this month's edition of the journal Psychological Science, looked at the relation between wearing counterfeit products and cheating.

As the study shows, wearing counterfeit products, influences people's cheating behavior and even has an effect on people's perception of how honest their peers are. Here's a brief summary of the research:

85 female students were invited to the research lab; ostensibly to evaluate the quality of different types of sunglasses. Before starting the main part of the experiment, each participant stated preferences across a range of products on a computer. They were then (randomly) told that the computer program had calculated a preference for either authentic or counterfeit products, and depending on which preference was stated, participants were asked to fetch a pair of sunglasses from a box labeled either authentic or counterfeit. Both of the boxes actually contained an identical sample of ten different pairs of designer sunglasses - each worth around 300$ and none of them counterfeits. (The purpose of the preceding assignment stage was to make participant's believe that they had been assigned their particular pair of glasses, based on personal preferences).

[CrazyIvan]

Swastika in middle of forehead definitely a minus at a job
interview.

[OKSooner]

" (The purpose of the preceding assignment stage was to make participant's believe that they had been assigned their particular pair of glasses, based on personal preferences). "

Has Psychology Today ever done a study on Random Apostrophe Disease? :)

[ClearCase_guy]

The study's authors suggest

"at the outset [of their study] that people adopt counterfeit products because they are trying to improve their self-image"

Ironically, their study shows that these counterfeit products actually harm self-image by causing a sense of inauthenticity, or inducing what the authors term a "counterfeit self".

I really don't want to see everything through the lens of Race, but this just jumps out at me. If you're taught to be a victim, taught that people look down on you, if you're expected to have self-image problems -- what does that do to you? Would you adopt a false personna? Lots of swagger? Lots of attitude? Would you get in people's faces and demand "respect" because, deep down inside, you feel like a scared little phony?

If people are forced to take personal responsibility, and be who they truly are -- if people have to stand up for themselves and actually meet real expectations, then they will be healthier and happier individuals and will be more productive members of society.

Or they could just attend Al Sharpton's next rally.

[central_va]

Cost of Faking It. Just look at the current occupants of the West Wing.

[PGR88]

What would the corollary be for children who are all forced to wear the same school uniform? Higher self-esteem? greater empathy?

[Liz]

Oops---I thought this was a Planned Parenthood thread.

More about the PP busybodies conducting hands-on surveillance on the ins and outs and ups and downs of genitalia-in-motion.

For those not yet in the know, circumnavigating genital cavities is a very profitable business.

Don't expect limp statistics from the PP crowd. No sir.

[Raider Sam]

I think it would depend on when you began the uniforms. If kids have never done anything but uniforms, I think your scenario could easily play out. However, if kids had worn what they wanted until 6th grade, and then the rule was implemented, I think there would be resentment of the rule and kids would try to rebel. Plus, people would still know who belongs to what “class” in school.

[spetznaz]

bump and bookmark

[CPOSharky]

Has Psychology Today ever done a study on Random Apostrophe Disease? :)

85 female students

They also don't know how to capitalize a number. ;-)

[CitizenM]

There's a saying that clothes don't make the man, but a lot of times the clothes we wear (accessories and tattoos included) do actually say something about who we are.

Michelle, you sure let us know who you are!

[Savage Beast]

Like most people, I naturally abhor fakes. Truth has its own power. It demands recognition. It demands to be spoken.

However we can become conditioned to ignoring truth and the urgency to express it, and we can even lose contact with it altogether and become unable to tell the difference between truth and mendacity.

Who wants a fake Omega watch, for example? I don't even like silver plate. When I first got a computer, I experimented with being somebody else--faked age, circumstances, etc. I soon stopped that. I didn't like what it was doing to me.

I don't like anything fake. I don't like dishonesty. I do not want an inauthentic self. If I don't like something about myself, I want to change that--not fake it.

Mendacity is corrosive. One can reach a point of confusion and dispair at which nothing is true, real, or authentic.

This is one of the worst thing about the Decadence that has suffused Western Civilization and bombards us constantly from the Left--especially the "newsmedia", college professors, celebrities, and politicians:

They scorn truth.

Some do it for purposes of propaganda.

Some naively think they can improve on truth.

Some merely parrot what they have heard elsewhere.

Some are intellectually lazy.

Some are stupid.

Some are naturally mendacious.

But the mendacity and inauthenticity of the Left is the single most dangerous thing in the world today. It has created an enormous subculture of mendacity, inauthenticity, and disregard or downright scorn of truth.

Most of the perpetrators of this have become so accustomed to mendacity as to have lost the ability to recognize truth, falsehood, dishonesty, distortion of truth, lies, deceit, manipulation, and mendacity.

That's why they parrot what other people have said. They no longer know the difference between truth and mendacity.

This is extremely dangerous. If you cannot recognize truth and mendacity, you do not know what is real and what is not, and your chances of making wise decisions are between zilch and zero.

This is why the Western World is in such a mess today: An enormous part of the intelligentsia has lost the ability to differentiate between truth and mendacity, between information and propaganda, and between reality and illusion, and consequently they and their disciples cannot make intelligent decisions.

[Cronos]

Pardon me — I don’t see the link to school uniforms. I wore a school uniform until college.

[JimRed]

Swastika in middle of forehead definitely a minus at a job interview.

Unles you're inteviewing for a position with StormFront!

[MEGoody]

As the study shows, wearing counterfeit products, influences people's cheating behavior and even has an effect on people's perception of how honest their peers are.

I'm really not surprised by this. In general, people are too gullible and easily lead around by the nose. That's why companies spend so much on advertising, and that's why Obama won the Presidential election.

Then there are those of us (like most of us FReepers) who are not gullible and easy to influence. We can actually think for ourselves and know that the designer name does not make the sunglasses function any better, nor does it mean that the person wearing them has more intelligence or stronger character.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Right. Much of what passes as intellectual accomplishments is about creating fake world. Forcing the change on people's perception to believe that the world is according to intellectual's vision, even if the real world is far from it.

The exercise of deconstruction is a deliberate and systematic endeavor to undermine the one's ability to seek truth and replace it with what they want. Once such foundation was melted away by corrosive acid of deconstruction, people are malleable to their 'suggestion.'

This is also how some old civilizations end up trapping themselves into social pathology. People in such civilization develops in time many ways of subterfuge to deal with other people. Any social interaction has undercurrent of subterfuge and fakery. It becomes part and parcel of everybody's mind and culture in general. Despite long history of cultural society, it is stuck in festering soup of deception and fakery, unable to pull ahead.

[PGR88]

Pardon me — I don’t see the link to school uniforms. I wore a school uniform until college.

I was only extrapolating from the article. As the article states, seeking fake brands for self-promotion causes (or reveals) lying and other bad behaviors, then I assume that kids/people wearing uniforms (at school) would perhaps cause the reverse - less lying, less self-promotion, better self-esteem, more group awareness.

[TommyDale]

:-0

[TommyDale]

85 females? Why didn’t they look into Al Gore and his famous sock?

[glorgau]

Wow, they’ve described the entire nation of China. Never trust anything from China that hasn’t been independently verified.