Mark Bowden The Importance Of Being Inauthentic Essay

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The video, “The Importance of Being Inauthentic,” posted by the YouTube channel, TEDx Talks, on October 22, 2013, talks about the importance of being inauthentic. The speaker, Mark Bowden, is an expert in human behavior and body language. In the video, he gives a unique perspective on how being more inauthentic is beneficial. He started off by saying that humans are creatures that make presumptions about other people before getting to know them. He then introduced the audience to a part of the brain known as the “R-Complex”, or the primitive brain. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for how humans react to something by sending signals to the neocortex. Bowden later clarifies that essentially, humans have four categories of reactions: friend, predator, sexual partner, or indifferent. If the brain perceives someone as a friend, that person will appear to be more approachable. But if the brain perceives someone as a potential predator, it is more likely that the body will have a negative reaction to the other person. If someone is deemed to be a potential partner, then a desire to mate with the other person is …show more content…

Meaning that most people will not care what others think or say; words will just become background noises. So to counteract this, Bowden showed the audience how to be perceived as a friend. He demonstrated this by showing the importance of smiling, flashing the eyebrows, and opening up the body. By doing this, Bowden appeared to be more approachable and friendly. However, he does state that this charade can be seen as a form of manipulation. But he does counteract this by saying that if everyone is being “authentic”, then their ideas will not be heard as people are likely not to approach each other. So essentially, Bowden encourages people to appear more inauthentic to become more approachable as it is a great way to get people to listen to each