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comment by teenagewangst

That's a fantastic question - one that I've thought of consciously or subconsciously but without putting into words. I'm not a psychologist, but I do think that acting a certain way to be that way can or will eventually turn into just being that way. That stems mostly from the idea that forcing yourself to smile can actually "make" you happier, although I assume this is an aggregate measure.

A lot of this comes from the conflict between the notion that we ought to be ourselves, that there isn't anything inherently wrong with our personalities, and when people tell others that they should stop being so judgmental, or be more confident, or less talkative, etc. There's room for both of these to be true, but they definitely conflict in my mind.