How to Tell When Someone is Pretending to Be Nice

You can spot pretensious niceness from afar and save yourself from pain.

Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Human beings pretend a lot. We pretend to be happier than we actually are.

We often pretend to be happier than we actually are, putting on a smile even when we don’t feel like it. We might pretend to agree with someone just to avoid conflict and keep the peace. Sometimes, we pretend to like something just to fit in with friends and not feel left out.

But one of the worst ways people pretend is when they mask their own agenda in your life by trying to be nice to you.

Someone can be extremely nice to you, even go out of their way to do things for you, and during the whole time, you’ll never suspect they’re just trying to gain access to you so they can push their agenda.

I remember the day when Tosin, a friend I had known for years, suddenly became unusually nice to me. It was out of the blue.

He started to help me with things he never seemed to notice before, whether it was offering to grab me a coffee on his way to work or surprising me with small gifts.

One instance that stands out was when I was swamped with work and feeling really overwhelmed.