[sbaqai]

>The posing makes a difference. Whatever you feel inside, you can move and shake things with the illusion. Then, somewhere along the lines, you believe in the illusion, have molded yourself into it. You pretended to be an alpha, and then you became it.

I find this quite interesting. I'm curious if you have any articles/links to something that expands on this idea? Especially this:

>Getting into the habit of a particular mindset CAN change you. Forcing a smile will eventually result in a real smile. Sure, your self-esteem can rise, purely on this.

[antareus]

I only have anecdotal evidence to share, but, take it for what it is worth.

I'd noticed that many people aren't always good judges of character and will fall for illusory confidence. IMO, this explains why there is undue emphasis in certain areas of life on social litmus tests: actual character evaluation is time-consuming, difficult, and requires a certain amount of introspection. So the test becomes a heuristic that works more often than not, and is relied upon. (I like to "whimsically" mention my past history of LAN gaming on 3rd dates as a way to assess how judgmental/uptight they are.)

The upshot is that other people's perceptions of you are way more malleable than you might believe...as is your own perception of yourself.

Ultimately, social exchanges are something of a game, and can be exploited.

[tome]

The way I interpret is as follows.

Forcing yourself to do something (like smile) when you don't want to is like erecting a tall building. The more you work on keeping the structure of the building steady the more the more you are required to consciously and unconsciously work on solidifying the foundations and the structural integrity of the building.

(This is just one outcome of course. Another is that you keep forcing it and it doesn't help you get the foundations in order.)