There's this old Dilbert comic (that I wish I could find, arg no luck) in which Dilbert tells Alice that in order to succeed, you have to imitate the one who has the power to promote you. The last panel shows Alice dressed and hair styled in two cones like the Pointy-Haired Boss, much to his delight.
In an earlier episode of The Office, Andy talks about how he imitates people's mannerisms in order to earn their trust. When he is first introduced to Michael Scott, he apes his ridiculous behavior as his own. Cut to Michael saying that that Andy Bernard seems like a smart guy. (Again, a video clip would be helpful.)
I was going through some recent emails when I realized that I do the same sort of mimicry in my digital correspondences. I take capitalization (usually a sign of the level of casual), punctuation (example - use of exclamation points), line spacing, and even sign off cues from whomever wrote me. I'm like a stylistic chameleon.
It's funny that we all take cues from each other, rubbing off behavior right and left. Subconsciously it makes us feel normalized, part of a like-minded pack that self-validates in circles.
1 comments:
I was looking for that Alice strip too! I found a couple from the Dilbert site. Just put in keywords "alice boss imitate" and you'll see 2 strips where Alice has the 2 pointy hair style. :)
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