Fake friends: how to recognize them

The human being usually relates to other individuals by nature and survival instinct. We are social animals and we establish bonds of both love and friendship to avoid feeling alone and to reinforce our security in ourselves. However, we may come across false and hypocritical people whose objective is to relate to us by pure interest. Although it pains us to admit it, these types of people exist and it is possible that, today, they are close to us. To avoid being harmed, we must identify their behavior patterns and get rid of these types of relationships.

In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about the fake friends and how to recognize them. Learning to distinguish between an enriching friendship and a friendship for interest, can help us choose well with whom we share our time and well-being.

Index

1. False people according to psychology
2. Characteristics of a fake person
3. How to know if a person is fake with you
4. How to deal with a fake friend

We talk a lot about false people, hypocrites and toxic friends, this vocabulary is very present in our day to day, however, What is a false person like according to psychology? Is there a specific pattern to distinguish a toxic personality?

There are no studies that separate these types of people into clear categories, someone can be very sincere in some area of ​​their life and then turn out to be a false person in other aspects. Falsehood is something very volatile, However, it is usually related to an insecure personality and socially withdrawn, someone who does not dare to show his face can put on a mask to show himself to others.

In reference to hypocrisy, we can distinguish people from weak morality or double standards. These types of individuals either use beliefs that are not theirs to form an identity (weak morality) or they have a range of ideas that change the minds of the people around them (double standard). Hypocrisy has many faces and it is very important to learn to identify them.

1. Links too fast:

You meet a person and suddenly he wants to go with you everywhere, you don't know why but he wants to know everything about you, he even cares about your weaknesses. Careful! Fake people try to get others to open up as much as possible to detect your weak points, and thus, know how to handle ourselves. Such early ties are usually a sign of a false friendship and for mere interest.

2. Is always smiling

Fake and interested people are always smiling. This is because they seek to please others and use non-verbal expression as a strategy adaptive, however, as it is not a genuine emotion, we can identify the forced smile and little sincere.

3. They are passive-aggressive

This feature can be very harmful to us, a fake person will never put on the table what bothers them and what doesn't. Therefore, he will always try to make us feel bad but without resorting to a real confrontation. Lack of self-confidence is reflected in this inability to face the truth and seek strategies to make others feel insecure as well.

4. Use ambiguous compliments

"How beautiful you look in this photo, you don't look like you"or"How well this dress fits you, one size more and it would be ideal"

These types of compliments are typical of false people, their purpose is not to make us feel good but quite the opposite. However, they mask their offenses under an ambiguous compliment to avoid arousing suspicion.

Once we have seen the main characteristics of a hypocritical person, it is time to ask ourselves if in our closest circle we have someone who complies with them.

How to recognize fake friends?

It is very easy to recognize a false friend, the problem lies in wanting to admit that that person is playing with us and our feelings. Whether out of pride or affection for that person, sometimes it is difficult for us to open our eyes to what really happens in that friendship relationship. After personal disappointment, we are likely to have trouble making new friends and even wonder internally how to know if we have real friends.

A false friend is one who looks for you only out of interest, he does not count on you for important plans and you cannot lean on him when you really need him. He is only there for the good times and often makes you feel insecure when you are in a group of people.

Once we recognize and admit that we have been next to a false person and (probably) manipulative, it is time to choose what to do, whether to learn to deal with his company or to get rid of he or she.

If even knowing that your friendship is not true, we want to keep that person close, it is time to learn to deal with a fake friend, for this, we recommend the following keys:

1. Do not trust everything he tells you: fake people are also often quite liars, they tend to lie about events in their life to show off something that has not really happened or, on the other hand, they also lie about tastes and hobbies to strengthen ties personal.
2. Develop self-confidence: Remember that it is not good to have a false friend for trust matters, it is possible that he can reach you betray and those situations are painful, to avoid feeling so much discomfort, it is important to develop our personal strengths and thus not depend so much on other people.
3. Do not trust him deep secrets: Remember that these types of friendships are based on knowing the weaknesses of the other person and playing with them, if we put our weaknesses and secrets on a platter, they will have it much easier to manipulate us.
4. Find activities to do without that person:Exiting the cycle of toxicity from time to time is a good strategy to promote our mental health. We can make plans with other people and rely on them instead of completely putting our trust in a fake friend.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Fake friends: how to recognize them, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.