To complicate things a little more. Many social scientists believe that we actually have multiple selves. In a way, each of us is really a number of different people. For example, your mother would probably not recognize the EU that emerges at a party at two o'clock AM. We have as many selves as we do different social roles. Depending on the situation, we act differently, use different products and services, and even vary in terms of how much we like the aspect of ourselves, we put on display.
To appreciate the importance of multiple selves. Let's take a look at another vintage commercial that may be familiar to you. Classic audience commercial from the 1970s really highlights this perspective of multiple selves and also illustrates the importance of thinking about how you can fit different brands into different parts of the self are different role identities. And this is related to a body of theory in sociology. That's known as the dramaturgical perspective on human behavior. This perspective views people as actors who play different roles.
We each play many roles and each role has its own set. Script, props and costumes. As Shakespeare said, all the worlds of stage so, impression management and playing different roles is all a part of this process. It's hard to emphasize how important it is for marketers to think about the ways that their brands might fit into the various roles that people play. And we each have a number of role identities. These are different components of the self, only some of them are active at any given time.
Some identities for example, husband, boss, or student are more central to the self than others. But other identities for example, dancer or gearhead, or advocate for the homeless may dominate in specific situations. If each person potentially has many social cells, how does each develop Do we decide which self to activate at any point in time? The sociological tradition of symbolic interactionism stresses that relationships with other people play a large part in forming the self. According to this perspective, we exist in a symbolic environment. We assign meaning to any situation or object when we interpret the symbols in this environment.
As members of society, individuals learn to agree on shared meanings. Thus, we know that a red light means stop. We know that the Golden Arches means fast food, and that blondes have more fun. that knowledge is important in order to understand consumer behavior, because it implies that our possessions play a key role as we evaluate ourselves and decide Who we are at any moment in time. According to this perspective, we're always trying on different selves. We're always experimenting, and trying to evaluate whether we're going to fit into a certain social role and whether we're going to like that role.
One interesting technology application that is relevant to this perspective, is the interactive dressing room. And several retailers including Bloomingdale's are currently testing interactive dressing rooms in their stores. When you choose a garment, the mirror superimposes it on your reflection, so that you can see how it would look on your body without going to the trouble of trying it on. It's exciting stuff. But in a way, this fancy technology simply simulates the printing process that many shoppers undergo when they print In front of a mirror, and try to imagine what a garment will look like on and whether others will approve of it. We're not.
Sociologists call the process of imagining others reactions, taking the role of the other, or the looking glass self. According to this view, our desire to define ourselves operates as a sort of psychological sonar. We take readings of our own identity, when we bounce signals off of others, and try to project their impression of us. But like the distorted mirrors in a funhouse, our appraisal of who we are varies depending on whose perspective we consider and how accurately we predict their evaluations of us. In symbolic interactionist terms, we negotiate these meanings over time. So in essence, we continually ask ourselves the question, Who am I in this situation?
Those around us greatly influence how we answer this question. Because we also ask, Who do other people think I am? We tend to pattern our behavior on the perceived expectations of others as a form of self fulfilling prophecy. When we act the way we assume others expect us to act, we often confirm these perceptions. If you're familiar with the movie and play my fair lady, it's essentially based on the idea of the self fulfilling prophecy. According to this story, Audrey Hepburn who starts out as a lower class woman in British society, over time learns the mannerisms of an upper class lady and starts to believe in the roles He's playing.
As a result, others believe it as well a classic self fulfilling prophecy. Have you ever been late and walked into a meeting that's already in progress? If you were convinced that all eyes are on you as you awkwardly searched for your seat, you can understand the feeling of self consciousness as the spotlight is on you. In contrast, sometimes we behave with shockingly little self consciousness. For example, we may do things in a stadium at a riot, or perhaps at a fraternity party, that we would never do if we were highly conscious of our behavior. And sometimes, of course, we add insult to injury when we post these escapades on our Facebook page.
Some people seem to be more sensitive in general to the image they communicate to others. However, we all know people who actually As if they are oblivious to the impression they're making. A heightened concern about the nature of one's public image also results in more concern about the social appropriateness of products and consumption activities. consumers who score high on a scale of public self consciousness, express more interest in clothing, and use more cosmetics than others who score lower. In one study, highly self conscious subjects expressed greater willingness to buy personal products, such as a douche or a gas prevention remedy, that are somewhat embarrassing to buy, but may avoid awkward public incidents later. perhaps not surprisingly, publicly visible types, such as college football players and fashion models tend to score higher on these dimensions.
Self Consciousness on steroids perhaps that's what we're experiencing in what historians looking back might call the era of the selfie, a selfie or a picture a smartphone user takes of him or herself on a smartphone. Whether or not it's attached to a selfie stick is a common form of communication especially for millennials. There are more than 35 million selfies posted on Instagram alone. Then add in the growing practice of posting streaming video of yourself on platforms such as periscope cameo and Meerkat. And you've got a major cultural phenomenon. Indeed, the term Mere catting which describes the act of someone shooting a video in live stream has become a verb, as thousands of people create their own running self documentaries.
The takeaway here is that Consumers obsessions with documenting what they do present attractive promotional opportunities for brands that can figure out ways to be included in their photos and video streams.