Is this your true face

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…”

This quote from the great William Shakespeare is actually a very true description for one of the main truths behind social psychology. Ever since an early age, people start seeing their surroundings as something they need to adapt to. The environment shapes a significant proportion of an individual’s personality and we start to notice patterns of behaviour that should be followed in specific social situations, similar to the nature of memes in one of my previous posts [The science behind memes]. For example, you will most probably feel out of place if you start laughing at a funeral or if you hysterically cry during a party. However, it’s a lot more complex than that…

The world can in fact be perceived as a stage because people play and fulfill different roles in different social settings. There’s an interesting social psychology experiment that reveals this in a rather dark manner but more on this in a future post. You have a work-focused mindset when you go to the office and a friendly, outgoing mindset when you return home to your family or go out with a couple of friends. Social roles can be synonymous with theatrical roles in many ways as there are several levels or layers of society in which we most often interact such as school, work, family and relatives, strangers etc. As a matter of fact, the Japanese say you have three faces. The first face, you show to the world. The second face, you show to your close friends, and your family. The third face, you never show anyone. It is the truest reflection of who you are. This concept has frequently been adapted to various forms of media throughout the years.

In Ancient Greece, the actors at the theatre (who were only male at that time) used to wear masks as each one of them represented a particular emotion or social role. If we think about it, people have always worn masks in their lives, albeit in a more metaphorical way. Let’s take the example of a hypocrite – this is a person who fakes his emotion or attitude in order to appear more publicly approved. He wears a mask that does not truly reflect his inner character and does this for a selfish goal. People can wear masks even in a non-metaphorical sense for various reasons. The mask doesn’t just conceal your identity, it conceals your emotions from the outside world and you become just a body or a messenger of that mask.

One of the reasons why many people find certain masks scary is because they have no clue what the person behind it is or what his emotions are, regardless of what emotion (if any) the mask is showing. The question is, when do we show our true face? I have a pretty good suggestion actually: think about those situations when people feel cornered, threatened, consumed by greed, hatred, or are under pressure, especially if they’re under a time limit. In such cases, your brain doesn’t have the conscious capacity to hide your emotions. Thus, your previously concealed characteristics and feelings emerge (although for a short period) under the rule of the unconscious mind and could often be seen as negative, primal and almost animalistic. For instance, Claude Frollo, the main antagonist from Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame”, starts as an Archdeacon, with a calm but firm character. However, he later unleashes his hatred towards the Gypsies in Paris as he believes his lust for one of them (Esmeralda) is a temptation by the devil. His true face and “inner monster” is seen when he ultimately orders the hanging of Esmeralda (these details are slightly changed in the family-friendly Disney film, of course!).

The point is, people do have more than one face as they feel the need to present themselves differently in accordance with the varying degrees of the social environment. I guess Mr Shakespeare was right after all. By the way, I have a short film on my YouTube channel called HIDDEN and it tries to explain the way people wear masks in society in order to conceal their true emotional experiences. Give it a watch when you have some free time! Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UADnk64SbU