In the world there are many people who pretend to be our friends, but over time we realize that this is not the case when they demonstrate their toxic and interested attitudes, which can lead us to complicated situations.
Of these supposed friends, there are several types with multiple characteristics, which we can recognize if we know them. So, in this way we can protect our inner circle without anyone taking advantage of us.
In the following article, you will find all the necessary information about fake friends, as well as the characteristics they present to detect them, the types there are and how we can protect ourselves from them.
What are fake friends?
False friends are generally all those people who maintain a hypocritical or interested attitude against us, for their benefit without us noticing. Thus harming our environment and social life.
These people only think about themselves and no one else, which makes them very selfish even though they don’t seem so. They do not hesitate to criticize us and highlight our weaknesses, for them to feel better no matter who is around.
Characteristics of fake friends
The characteristics of fake friends can vary, so if you have a known person with the following qualities that we mentioned, it would be good to take them away from your close social circle:
They intend to establish intimate friendships overnight.
Fake friends try to make close friends quickly to know everything about us, including our weaknesses and problems we have in order to take advantage of it. Therefore, we must be prudent when acting in this way.
At first they are charming and attentive
These people at first are charming and attentive to us, but without realizing it they have already changed their attitude. They act after a while in a hypocritical way pretending a virtue they don’t have.
Over time they show an interested character
False friends usually have an interested character in order to fulfill their wishes or whims of themselves, in which they seek to take advantage of our skills and work to satisfy their needs and concerns.
They are usually in the good but not in the bad
Fake friends are usually only around in good times, but not in bad. It is in those situations where you need support or are going through serious problems that they will show their absence.
They tend to talk bad behind the back
Talking badly behind a person’s back is a characteristic that you should consider as fake friendships. They are not honest with you and they will talk about you in a bad way. When you notice this, it is best to avoid them.
They criticize maliciously
Fake friends criticize maliciously to demotivate and make us feel bad emotionally. They go to great lengths to highlight the mistakes we make and criticize us for our failures.
They manifest toxic attitudes
There are people who show toxic attitudes, which are very difficult to treat and it is best to avoid them because of their way of being. They tend to have very negative, aggressive and guilty behaviors that significantly damage our mental health.
ToStudy carried out on the psychological profiles in a toxic relationship mentions that these negative People have attitudes of comparison, arrogance, authoritarian, manipulative and also hold you responsible for complicated situations.
They are not capable of assuming their mistakes
Fake friends are not capable of accepting the mistakes they make. Generally, they think they know everything and are afraid of proving that they were wrong, for which they excuse themselves and look for blame. These types of people often bring conflicts to their environment.
They tend to victimize
People who tend to victimize themselves are very problematic since they feel offended and attacked by almost anything.
They tend to be very complaining and exaggerated with respect to the attitudes of others, becoming vulnerable to the opinions they hear.
types of fake friends
In the world we can be presented with many people that we must be aware of when we want to make friends, since there are various types of false friendships that do not suit us. Some of these are the following:
The one who criticizes behind your back
A false friend criticizes us behind our backs with others, without telling us anything in front, they act hypocritically and often do so with others. Therefore, we must be careful of those people who gossip a lot to others in a negative way.
The one who is only in the good
These types of false friends will only be with us in good times and will not worry when we are going through very difficult situations. They are only interested in taking advantage of our resources and conditions when we are well.
The Social Climber
The social climber is one who benefits from the status we have in society, taking advantage of showing their superiority and elegance to others above us. They usually go with other people, without worrying about other people’s feelings.
the envious
The envious person is a type of false friend, which is based on wanting the same level of abilities or comforts that we have. In general, they are people with low self-esteem and full of great sadness or anger for not achieving what others do.
An Investigation carried out on emotions and power in human behaviors mentions that envy is a social danger that arises in a person with the interrelationship of others, in which they self-destruct by seeking to destroy the other.
The Manipulator
He is someone who seeks to find the vulnerability that we have, to take advantage of situations at the cost of it. They tend to look for people full of guilt, codependent or very gullible. It is best to get away from them as soon as possible.
ToStudy carried out at Pompeu Fabra University , concluded that manipulation is used in the social sphere in the form of abuse of power and domination to highlight the moral superiority and credibility of the person who performs it.
The one who judges
The friend who is very judgmental usually spends his time judging the conditions and appearances of others in order to ridicule them. They tend to be people with very low self-esteem, as they focus their attention on comparing themselves to feel superior.
The one who competes for everything
We must be careful of the friend who competes for everything, since they feel upset when you have successes and they still don’t. In the same way, they have toxic attitudes and cause humiliation to feel superior to others when they achieve an achievement.
Through a Study, it is mentioned that competitive attitudes generate the desire to win and always be superior. This causes states of frustration and stress, which are aggressively reflected when the person fails to be better than others.
The one who only looks for you to vent
There are fake friends who only look to us to vent their emotions on us, which causes emotional exhaustion and waste of time, since they only show up to serve as a handkerchief for tears and try to raise their self-esteem.
How to protect yourself from fake friends?
It is necessary to know how to protect ourselves from false friends, in this way we will not have to deal with people with toxic personalities or who want to take advantage of us. Therefore, keep the following recommendations in mind:
Pay attention to intuition
Being attentive to our intuition about someone is important. There will be times when we suspect a friend that being with him will not benefit us, even so, it is not necessary to limit the relationship until after a while to confirm or not that impression.
Reduce contact with them
One way to protect against false friends is to reduce contact with them. Stopping looking for them or writing to them will cause a slow distancing in the relationship, but that could benefit us for our mental health, once a decision has been made.
Avoid telling them intimacies
Not telling these types of friends about your intimacies will free us from worries and bad times, since they could easily use our secrets to manipulate or humiliate us.
deal with them appropriately
If they cause us a lot of problems or humiliation, it would be best to deal with them in an appropriate way. Establishing the limits of the relationship and clarifying misunderstandings so as not to abuse trust and respect.
Get away permanently if there is no other option
Making the decision to permanently move away from false friends can be a very good recommendation. This can get us out of the problems they attract and increase our self-esteem. We can always look for a different social environment.
University Professional in the area of Human Resources, Postgraduate in Occupational Health and Hygiene of the Work Environment, 14 years of experience in the area of health. Interested in topics of Psychology, Occupational Health, and General Medicine.