The Office Jester… every office needs one to unveil deceptive impression management humorously
Deceptive impression management is an old phenomenon that has been around for quite some time. The only difference now is that certain studies have coined the term which has brought the phenomenon into the light. Deceptive impression management, in the simplest of terms, means trying to manage one’s impression in front of someone else through deception. As per the study in question, deceptive impression management is done by three types of people – the sycophant, the cover-up artist, and the all-purpose liar.
How those types of people go about deceptive impression management is fairly obvious by the terms. The sycophant keeps his opinion to himself while endorsing the superior’s ideas, concepts, preferences, theories, and solutions wholeheartedly (we’ve all seen such a suck-up in school, universities, and at work). The cover-up artist lies, deceives, and makes up reasons for his shortcomings or failed tasks and projects (we’ve all been this guy at some point in our life). The all-purpose liar will lie about anything and everything just be seen in the right light (we all have a friend who does this).
Like all forms of deception, it is very rare for deceptive impression management to remain veiled. More often than not, this web of deception comes undone to everyone but the boss’s amusement. Haven’t you seen kids being caught out in their lies of not having done their homework because of XYZ reason when teachers speak to parents? Haven’t you seen and revelled after seeing that hated subordinate being brought to task because your office decided to audit everyone’s daily hours? Haven’t you sniggered at your friend’s discomfort, after his wife figured out that he’s out drinking with you as opposed to doing some homely chore?
Usually, it’s the little lies that get caught out but when a big one is unveiled, like in this video. The results are even more hilarious.
Deceptive Impression Management Unveiled On TV Show
If we’re not careful, we’ll turn into a Bob Newhart fan page. This is another video from Newhart in a line of videos that will tickle you silly. In this piece, Bob Newhart is hosts a talk show – “Book Talk” – whose content revolves around reviewing books and interviewing authors. From the outset, it is clear that Newhart has committed one of those cardinal sins of all professions – not doing your research before coming onto the metaphorical stage. In this case, Newhart or “Dick” didn’t read the book of the author he was about to interview.
The interview actually starts out quite well. The author is holding up his end of the bargain well by using some very attractive words and phrases (although, if you’re a writer, you can see the clichés) like “medley of pain and pleasure”, “set out to travel”, “air was so heavy, we felt we were drinking it instead of breathing it”, “sheer spectacle of those deep, green rainforests unspoiled by any man”, and so on and so forth (you get the idea).
These statements were made with the most natural of expressions and the straightest of faces. You’ve got to love the capacity for sheer misrepresentation in Colonel Lloyd Manninger. The problem, of course, came when the Colonel claimed to have seen “a herd of prehistoric dinosaurs”.
This is the same moment that you see in your schools and offices when instances of deceptive impression management are exposed. What happens when deceptive impression management is unveiled? Well, the culprit tries to bury himself in further by trying to prove that he wasn’t lying. Colonel Manninger, it seems, took that little action and turned into pure art!
He came up with names of specific dinosaurs and even showed document footage in the form of a still taken from the air. As is the case with all lies, this one bred another one. To justify the footage, Colonel Manninger invented aliens in the Amazon. We have just six words for this moment, “needless to say, we were shocked!”
Colonel Manninger didn’t stop there. He continued his word play in the midst of his deception – “we were torn between running for our lives and running for the cameras”.
The conspiracy theories from Colonel Manninger also continued. He claimed that he had been in hiding because the government / CIA has been trying to kill him because his news can cause panic to the public. He said that he has been trying to get on the airwaves but the “three major networks, PBS, and most cable channels” are controlled by the Soviet Union. In the end, if you turned off the video too soon, maybe you should finish it completely. Manninger asks Dick conspiratorially how long he has been in the KGB.
Needless to say, we were shocked and torn between clicking on the “like” button or the “power” button of our PCs and our lives!
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