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Comment by martin-t | Hacker News Reader

The writers do this because people sometimes do this to real people too. Are you kinda smart and look/dress/talk the part? You're now "the smart guy" in many people's perception. Do you know how to sound authoritative regardless of actual knowledge/capability? People will gravitate towards of you as their leader. There's a downside too. Did you embarrass yourself a couple times? You're "the clumsy guy" for many people.

Then how people treat you in front of others affects how others perceive you - similarly to how first impressions work. People are full of cognitive biases.

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That is something completely different then the trope.

Is it? Your personality (how others view it) is simplified to its most defining traits and then that perception is gradually reinforced by how people treat you (consciously or not). Seems pretty similar to me.

Yes it is. Following does not happen:

> Your personality (how others view it) is simplified to its most defining traits

Instead, the more people know you, the more they perceive your other traits and the more complex opinion of you they have.

> then that perception is gradually reinforced by how people treat you

There is definitely such a thing as strong influence of various people on each other. But, it does not do flanders-like simplification to single trait nor does it persistently exaggerate that single trait all that much.

I think that the popularity of sitcoms and similar actually makes it more likely for us to treat people this way, as caricatures of themselves. It invades our mind.

That's the connection between the two topics that I see.

I think there is something worth cross examining. It's easier to relate to people when they are simplified. It's easier to be relatable when you are simplified. Since there is a social drive to relate with others being a trope has some reward.

The article discusses that the easy laugh takes priority over richer character development. Seems shallow, but it sells, just like being more easily relatable would sell.

It's an angle I don't pursue personally but I wonder if I should get into football or something just so I could relate with a larger population.

In my darker moments, I wonder if it is not a subconscious attempt to simplify an entity so that they do not enter our Dunbar's Number-sized cohort. Spend too much time (just how many hours are these series?) with "too real" of a character with too many moving parts and they're suddenly closer than one would like.

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