# Why do people refer to themselves in the first person plural?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-refer-to-themselves-in-the-first-person-plural/456679>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 16, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-refer-to-themselves-in-the-first-person-plural/456679 "2008-07-16T13:57:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeturgeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@jeturgeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeturgeon)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-refer-to-themselves-in-the-first-person-plural/456679/21 "2012-03-26T02:52:41Z")

</div>

-Are we awake?  
-We’re not sure. Are we… black?  
-Yes, we are.  
-Then we’re awake… but we’re very puzzled.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-refer-to-themselves-in-the-first-person-plural/456679.md?page=1)