Social Dramaturgy: How We Develop Masks To Interact

It is possible to analyze our interactions with others as if we were in a play, as if our social life consisted of a series of masquerades. Social dramaturgy is a microsociological approach that focuses on the study of human behavior and on the rules that govern our daily interactions.

In the Plato Symposium, Socrates asks which genre of ancient Greek drama, comedy or tragedy is most similar to reality. Socrates claimed that it was a tragedy. However, it was Erving Goffman, the creator of symbolic interactionism, who said that life was a stage. Goffman argued that in every social interaction we engage in, we consciously or unconsciously try to project a concrete image of ourselves. In other words, we try to manipulate how others perceive us.

For Goffman, our personality is not an internal phenomenon. Instead, it is the sum of all the different “masks” that we put on throughout our lives: a social dramaturgy.

What is social dramaturgy?

Both theater actors and social actors have the same goal: To be congruent in the interaction with those around them. To convey a good impression, we must have dramatic (social) skills and necessary costumes and props.

However, all this is irrelevant if the actors on stage cannot agree on the expectations and limitations of their acting. In other words, their “interpretation” implicitly indicates how to act in a particular setting (social environment).

The stage and backstage

There are two important elements in social dramaturgy: the stage and the backstage. In particular, the scene consists of the moments where we project an image of ourselves for others. On the other hand, backstage is our private life, which can also be another mask we put on for ourselves.

Social dramaturgy consists of knowing how to move between the stage and backstage. In addition, it is important to switch from one set to another and to have a suitable costume at all times, and there are important requirements for social success. Thus, anyone who does not know how to act during the play is a danger to the actors and can be discarded.

As we put on our play, our comments and expressions of surprise, approval, irony or disgust shape other people’s opinions about us. We are aware of this, and therefore we control what we say, assess our movements, and monitor our reactions. We always perform. Furthermore , we define our roles based on the environment we are in to try to fit in.

We always adapt to our role. Just like TV actors, we can start the first episode with our personality and our jobs, educational or relationship situations undefined. We can begin to change and define these aspects when we hear our audience’s reaction. From there, we dedicate our lives to adapting to the character. Or at least until they cancel our show, and we have to throw that mask away. For example, we may quit our job, separate from our partner, or graduate from school.

Image and concealment

For Goffman, in this social dramaturgy, people try to present an ideal image every time they interact with others. This is because we believe it is beneficial to hide some parts of ourselves:

• We hide the training process for our role : We are like a teacher who, after preparing for a school lesson for hours, gives a lecture that pretends to always have understood the topic they are talking about. In other words, we prefer to show others only the final result of our repetition. We do not show all our “recordings” or how many times we rehearsed our lines until we finally remember them. They are all things ‘behind the scenes’.
• We hide all the dirty work it took to get to where we are. Our character may be incompatible with everything we did to gain praise. For example, imagine a politician who won a political campaign by selling his integrity. They had to fight fiercely to get to the top.

• We hide what can keep us from continuing with our performance. To do so, we keep criticism to ourselves. Furthermore, we avoid reacting to insults in a way that may affect the image we have chosen to show.

Sellers of morality in social dramaturgy

As Ervin Goffman said: “In their capacity as practitioners, individuals will be keen to maintain the impression that they live up to the many standards by which they and their products are judged. Because these standards are so numerous and so pervasive, the people who act linger longer than we might think in a moral world.

But for performing artists, individuals are not concerned with the moral question of realizing these standards, but with the amoral problem of creating a convincing impression that these standards are being realized. Our activity is then mostly concerned with moral matters, but as practitioners we have no moral concern for them. As performers, we are moral buyers. ” Can that be true?