What are the psychological and ethical consequences of performing social masks in daily life?
When we interact with others, we often put on a "social mask" that hides our true feelings and thoughts. This is called impression management. Impression management can be beneficial in some situations, such as when you want to impress your boss or make a good impression on a date. But it can also have negative effects, including increasing stress levels and causing us to feel isolated from our true selves.
One example of how impression management can lead to negative consequences is through the phenomenon known as "masking." Masking occurs when someone feels they must hide their true self in order to fit into society's expectations for their gender, race, or socioeconomic status.
A woman who is expected to be thin may try to control her eating habits in order to conform to this standard, even though she might be struggling with an eating disorder.
Another consequence of using social masks is that it can lead to cognitive dissonance, which occurs when people hold contradictory beliefs or values.
Someone who believes in honesty but lies to get ahead at work will experience cognitive dissonance because they believe lying is wrong but do it anyway. This can cause stress and anxiety, leading them to question themselves and their beliefs.
Social masking can also lead to ethical dilemmas. When we pretend to be something we're not, we may end up doing things that go against our personal morals.
If a salesperson tells customers lies about their product just to sell more products, they are engaging in unethical behavior. In addition, if we constantly put on a facade of happiness while dealing with depression, we may feel like we cannot be honest about our struggles with others.
Performing social masks has both positive and negative effects on our daily lives. It can help us make good impressions and meet societal expectations, but it can also increase stress levels, lead to cognitive dissonance, and cause us to engage in unethical behaviors.
Being authentic with ourselves and others is important for maintaining healthy relationships and mental well-being.
What are the psychological and ethical consequences of performing social masks in daily life?
Social masks refer to the behavioral strategies we employ to present ourselves as different from our true selves when interacting with others. People often wear different "masks" depending on who they are with, where they are, what their intentions are, etc. , and this can be seen as manipulative, dishonest, and even unethical.