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It's generally believed that people act the way they do because of their personalities and attitudes. Theyrecycle their garbage because they care about the environment. They pay $5 for a caramel brulée latte because they like expensive coffee drinks.
It's undeniable that behavior comes from our inner dispositions (性情), but in many instances we also drawinferences about who we are, as suggested by the social psychologist Daryl Bem, by observing our own behavior. We can be strangers to ourselves. If we knew our own minds, why would we need to guess what our preferences are from our behavior? If our minds were an open book, we would know exactly how much we care aboutthe environment or like lattes. Actually, we often need to look to our behavior to figure out who we are.
Moreover, we don't just use our behavior to learn about our particular types of character—we infer characters that weren't there before. Our behavior is often shaped by little pressures around us, which we fail to recognize. Maybe we recycle because our wives and neighbors would disapprove if we didn't. Maybe we buylattes in order to impress the people around us. We should not mistakenly believe that we always behave asa result of some inner disposition.
Whatever pressures there can be or inferences one can make, people become what they do, though it may not be in compliance (符合) with their true desires. Therefore, we should all bear in mind Kurt Vonnegut's advice: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
