I think being able to adapt to many different social enviroments is a good thing. You get social rewards for conforming to whatever group you’re in. You’re also less likely to cause disruption in the group for trying to be different.
People usually like conformists…but only when they conform to their group, culture, or environment.
I don’t understand how people can blame other people who want to reap the benefits of fitting in more than one group.
I was SO ready to debate the qualities of some reptiles here… Guess I will have to save that debate for later…
Man, I can’t imagine why anyone would hate chameleons! They have that cool independent eye thing going, and the sticky tongue, and as a bonus, they change colors!
Oh.
Nevermind.
There used to be tons of chameleons around where I grew up in Louisiana. My aunt used to catch two of them and use them for earrings. You can make them open their mouth and then clamp down on your earlobes. They won’t let go for a while. They don’t have them here in Mass which is a pity because my daughter loves them.
I can’t see why people wouldn’t like them although they can’t turn as many colors as one would hope.
I don’t understand what you’re talking about, and I don’t seem to be alone. As best I can make out, it seems that you’re introducing as an axiom that people who easily fit socially into several different groups of people are often disliked due to this ability, and you don’t understand that dislike.
Since I’ve never noticed the phenomenon, it’s difficult for me to comment. If you can clarify, please do.
If you’re seriously asking, well, it’s because being a chameleon means you’re being fake and insincere with a lot of people. Most people don’t like that. In theory at least, most people will have more respect for someone who seems to have enough integrity and confidence to just be who they really are rather than trying to make everyone like them with a fake image.
I believe a better term for what people don’t like is “weasel”. The perception is they’re slippery and treacherous. People are not very pleased when you expouse whole differnt forms of behavior or beliefs depending on who you’re near.
The perception is you lack self-respect, you are unreliable, unpredictable, fuzzy, and you have no center. They can’t grasp who you are. Maybe you can’t eiither.
Oh yeah, and cowardice… you lack the courage to stand for something against resistance.
I’ll take this one on.
Of course, if someone is fitting into an environment you find morally repulsive (extreme examples would be a hate group, a terrorist cell, or something like that), you’re not going to like them for lending legitimacy to that group by joining it and fitting in with them. I certainly would think less of you if I (hypothetically) knew you were a member of the KKK or something like that, and most Dopers probably would, too. Of course, that line is in a different place for different people- some people would probably think less of you for being a member of a pro-choice or pro-life group, for example.
Assuming there’s nothing to disapprove of in the group’s activities, there’s still a reason not to like a chameleon- it can easily be taken too far. People should have their own personalities, independent of whatever group they’re in, and shouldn’t spend more time than they need to in hiding their own personality. Someone who doesn’t have a personality independent of a group is bland and boring, and someone who covers up their personality to fit into a group is a phony. Neither of those categories are likeable people, at least not for most of us.
This comes out to be like most personality traits- too much of one extreme or the other isn’t good. If you can’t fit in with other people at all, nobody’s going to like you. If you spend too much effort to fit in with other people, and don’t have a personality independent of others, nobody’s going to like you, either.
I don’t think chameleon always equal fake. People have many different facets and can have seemingly conflicting qualities. Then there’s the moderates. These people can swing to either side.
No, but some are. Unfortunately, someone who’s had a negative experience with one chameleon type in the past is likely to have that color their opinion of ones they meet later, just like how a lot of people have positive or negative impressions of people with certain names because of people with those names that they’ve known.