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Have you ever observed an attitude or behavior in someone else and wished you could be more like them? At some point, most of us pine for attributes or behavioral capacities we find lacking in ourselves. Many is the client who has said to me, “I wish I could be more like so-and-so.” While it may seem like it, this isn’t always a rejection of one’s self so much as a desire to be better in some respect, be that one’s attitudes, behaviors, emotional responses, decision-making or ways of thinking.
Well, researchers have determined a surprising way to create this kind of psychological shapeshifting, one employing a method called the “Batman effect.” As comic book buffs know, Batman had a public persona (Bruce Wayne) who was a rich socialite, devil-may-care type bearing no resemblance to an avenging superhero. However, when he donned his bat suit and all the other trappings of his alter ego, he became the Batman. Obviously, these two personas, or selves, were starkly different, so in order for Bruce Wayne to morph from his regular persona into his superhero one, he had to intentionally inhabit a clearly defined alter ego.
While less dramatically, we ordinary humans can do something similar. Through conscious intention, we can create and then occupy a kind of separate self that embodies certain attitudes and behaviors we find lacking in our primary ego. However, this process requires more than modifying one’s thinking. For the Batman effect to succeed, one must build one’s alter ego in considerable detail.
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Creating an Alternate You?
Alec was a case in point. This 30ish professional was introverted, reticent to assert himself and inclined to accommodate others. Those attributes proved just fine in his personal life but created problems for him in his work where he was under pressure to assume more of a leadership role. “I’ve read up on being a better leader, and saw a personal coach, but I guess I’m just more of a go-with-the-flow type. Talking about it and even role playing with my coach didn’t seem to help,” he told me.
“It’s not just about a different way of thinking or acting,” I suggested. “It’s about creating a standalone, alternative self.”
How? Well, I asked Alec to compose a list of attitudes, personality traits and behaviors he wanted to exhibit when occupying his leadership role. This created a psychological template for crafting his alter ego. Next, he pondered how adopting these characteristics would show up in his style of dress and overall physical appearance, his posture and movements, his voice, including its tone, tempo and volume, his gestures and mannerisms, facial expressions, and, lastly, his ways of interacting with others. Once fully formed, this became his “Batman suit.”
While this may sound strange, most of us exhibit some version of an alter ego that we adopt in certain situations or with particular people. However, usually, we don’t create this alternative persona deliberately; it just emerges by happenstance. In contrast, intentionally inhabiting an alter ego is similar to what actors do when playing the role of a fictional character. The main difference is an actor is given a role to play, while someone crafting an alter ego is building that role to specifically fit their own needs and goals.
Like an actor, Alec learned to inhabit his alter ego by rehearsing. Using spoken monologues, he practiced stepping into his alter ego first in front of a mirror and then by videotaping himself. Reviewing these recordings helped him refine his transformation, which included dressing and acting the part of his alter ego. Once he felt sufficiently confident, he gradually rolled out his “new me” while at work. Eventually, he developed the capacity to step into his “Batman suit” and then out of it again as needed.
This approach conforms to the “Fake it until you become it” adage, but the process need not be disingenuous. In order to inhabit an alter ego, we must draw upon latent mental and emotional resources already present inside ourselves. One’s “bat suit” merely summons these capacities and brings them to the fore. In Latin, alter ego means “other I,” and, sometimes, two egos are better than one.
For more, visit philipchard.com.
