Discuss “'Faking it' — the things we do for love”

We’ve all done it — faked admiration for a movie we haven’t seen, a book we haven’t read, an actor we’ve never even heard of. It’s not hard to envision: The girl who grits her teeth and goes to Nascar races to get closer to her crush, the guy who suffers through the opera to win over his beloved, or the online chatter frantically googling a band mid-conversation in order to impress that special someone with a knowledge of its lyrics. If you’re seeing yourself in any of these, that’s okay.

The tendency to “fake it” is a common human urge, not only present in human courtship, but a constant factor in our daily interactions. We are perpetually aware of how we present ourselves to the world — seeking to adjust that persona...