Anytime someone pumps his fist and says “Yes!” I assume they are faking (i.e. they aren’t as excited about it as they (a) want to think they are, or (b) they want us to think.)
My belief is that this assumption is more often correct than not. Is it just me?
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 7, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Chris
I never thought of it that way. Most people who do that seem truly happy.
What leads you to think otherwise?
November 7, 2008 at 12:40 pm
jamsco
This is the kind of thing where some kind of scientific study would be really interesting, but impossible.
Next time you see someone do this (and it is more rare these days) consider the person’s motivation for doing it. It has seemed to me that people only do this when they have something to gain by looking excited about it.
But I’m afraid I have nothing that I can use to show evidence that my theory is correct.
November 7, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Chris
Well, I have been thinking about some scenarios.
A person could do that just to look “cool” in front of others. It’s the “in” way to respond.
A person on a game show could have been coached to be dramatic. (My Great Aunt Vera used to say, “They’ll won’t pick me as a contestant because I’ll never act that crazy.”)
When someone gets a gift, they might not really like it that much, but they might do that just so the person who gave the gift thinks they like it a lot.
Michael Phelps and his teammates at the Olympics beating the French swimmers’ time by just a second–I think in their case it was sincere happiness.
Are there other scenarios you had in mind?
November 8, 2008 at 11:21 pm
jamsco
I’m just guessing, but I’m pretty sure that Michael didn’t say “Yes!” after winning.
November 9, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Chris
You might be right. It’s all a blur now. I thought one of the teammates did, but I might be wrong.
It has been interesting to think about this, and I’ll be watching the next time I see it…