If your friends from college could secretly watch you having brunch with your mother-in-law, would they recognize you?
14% of people say they “often” change the way they speak or act depending on who they’re talking to. 32% say they do it “sometimes”, 27% do it “rarely”, and 23% claim they NEVER change who they are.
21% of people say OTHERS often change how they speak or act, 48% say others do it sometimes, 15% believe people do it rarely, and only 5% claim it’s something people never do. (Oh come on.)
So, is this a big deal? The idea is that you might come across as “fake” if you change based on who you’re with. But on the flipside, it might also be a savvy social skill to adjust and adapt yourself to your audience and the situation.
33% of people say shifting is “mostly a good thing.” 28% say it’s “mostly a bad thing.” And 38% aren’t sure.
(I’d be in that last camp. It depends on the context and the person’s intentions. It can be annoying to be around someone who’s always playing the room, but if you don’t have any tact, you come off as a jerk.)
(Like, even if you’re a tell-it-like-it-is person, it’s not nice to tell your friend’s wife that her newborn baby already looks like a tired accountant named Gary. Especially if you’re at your friend’s funeral.) (???)
