# Do you think everyone is two faced? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979 "2018-06-12T17:31:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/1 "2018-06-12T17:31:17Z")
Do you think everyone is two faced or is it just the ones you know? There must be degrees of two faced … a little, some where in the middle and a lot. I would say that I am a little, just enough not to offend someone. Do two faced people look you in the eye? Which leads me to another question, “Why do people look people in the eye” or should I say, “Why do people say look the other person in the eye” ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/2 "2018-06-12T17:36:48Z")
I think we all have different personas in different environments or situations. I don’t think that qualifies as “two-faced” in the traditional sense of the term where, metaphorically speaking, you are smiling adoringly at someone while you are slipping a dagger in their back. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/3 "2018-06-12T17:38:59Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > Do you think everyone is two faced or is it just the ones you know? > > There must be degrees of two faced … a little, some where in the middle and a lot. > > I would say that I am a little, just enough not to offend someone. > > Do two faced people look you in the eye? > > Which leads me to another question, “Why do people look people in the eye” or should I say, “Why do people say look the other person in the eye” What do you mean by “two-faced”? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/4 "2018-06-12T17:45:00Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What do you mean by “two-faced”? Someone who says one thing, but means another. A lot of salesman try to be your friends, but they are not. They are interested in only one thing getting your money for the product or item that they are selling. They will resort to be two faced (pretending to be your friend) ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/5 "2018-06-12T17:50:14Z")
Does it count as being two-faced if your intentions are not malicious or nefarious? For example, I often say I need to “facilitate” as I leave the room - where in reality I’m actually “using the facilities” by which I mean “use the bathroom” by which I mean “gotta go excrete fluids and/or solid matter that I could go into even more detail about should I want to be extremely honest”. So yeah - I’m not being completely honest about my intentions there. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/6 "2018-06-12T17:51:34Z")
If people really said what they were thinking all the time, we would all be sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/7 "2018-06-12T17:57:13Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > Does it count as being two-faced if your intentions are not malicious or nefarious? > > For example, I often say I need to “facilitate” as I leave the room - where in reality I’m actually “using the facilities” by which I mean “use the bathroom” by which I mean “gotta go excrete fluids and/or solid matter that I could go into even more detail about should I want to be extremely honest”. So yeah - I’m not being completely honest about my intentions there. My uncle would always stop the car and say “I need to go see a man about a horse” So I think excuses can be excused from being two faced. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/8 "2018-06-12T17:59:45Z")
"Which leads me to another question, “Why do people look people in the eye” or should I say, “Why do people say look the other person in the eye” That is totally different from being “two-faced”(as you put it). It could be a matter of upbringing and//or confidence in yourself and/or confidence in the other person. Being able to look someone in the eye has nothing to do with being or not being “two-faced”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/9 "2018-06-12T18:00:51Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > My uncle would always stop the car and say “I need to go see a man about a horse” > > So I think excuses can be excused from being two faced. Now I have no idea what you are trying to talk about. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/10 "2018-06-12T18:04:12Z")
I think it’s a pretty dim view of life if you think that everyone, or at least most people, is two-faced or have some kind of negative intention all the time. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/11 "2018-06-12T18:04:42Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > My uncle would always stop the car and say “I need to go see a man about a horse” > > So I think excuses can be excused from being two faced. If your question is “is everyone an awful deceptive corrupt person who wishes you ill and wants to stab you in the back and is using sweet words and lies to distract you while they aim the knife”, then the answer is yes, every person is like that. You’re going to die, be killed any minute now. If the question is “do people sometimes refrain from saying exactly what they’re thinking”, then the answer is no, every person always tells the truth and can withhold nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/12 "2018-06-12T18:09:36Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > If your question is “is everyone an awful deceptive corrupt person who wishes you ill and wants to stab you in the back and is using sweet words and lies to distract you while they aim the knife”, then the answer is yes, every person is like that. You’re going to die, be killed any minute now. > > If the question is “do people sometimes refrain from saying exactly what they’re thinking”, then the answer is no, every person always tells the truth and can withhold nothing. You are making the baby Spock cry. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/13 "2018-06-12T18:51:34Z")
No. I think the degree varies to which people are honest, open, blunt, impolite, and various other things relating to the timing and truthfulness of communicating their opinions to people, but the population in general do not qualify as “two-faced”. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/14 "2018-06-12T18:56:38Z")
My question to the OP is this: If you have determined that most people you have met throughout your life are “two-faced”, then are we to assume that you consider _us_(total strangers) to be “two-faced” in our answers to you? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/15 "2018-06-12T20:27:14Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You are making the baby Spock cry. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smell bad. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/16 "2018-06-12T20:41:31Z")
In the words of Robert Heinlein: “If you really believe that honesty is always the best policy, try telling your friends the unvarnished truth about what you think of their offspring.” ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/17 "2018-06-12T22:55:17Z")
Do I act the same at the office as I do at a weekend cookout? No. Does this make me “two faced?” I interact with others as the social situation requires. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/18 "2018-06-12T23:28:03Z")
Yes, I do. And so do I. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/19 "2018-06-12T23:39:27Z")
Hold on, before I answer I have to flip a coin. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979/20 "2018-06-13T00:09:15Z")
I’m confused. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-everyone-is-two-faced/815979.md?page=2)