We primarily think of actors as the ones playing a role and pretending to be someone they really are not. But in a sense everyone wears a mask and acts out a charade. This can be done deliberately, but most of the time is quite subconscious and involuntary. What are the purposes of putting on an invisibile mask? What would life be like without them? And how many layers of masks does a person actually wear?
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The lecture “The Stuff of Thought: Language as a window into human nature” by Steven Pinker gives some examples and explanations of persons choosing to express their intention indirectly in order to get the best possible outcome with the least possible risk.
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