Faking it is a Domain not completely congruent with the vice of hypocrisy, though there is so much overlap that we must face hypocrisy at the outset. Not all hypocrites experience the anxieties at the core of the faking it syndrome. And not all types of faking it raise a serious issue of hypocrisy. I am not a hypocrite, unless most teachers are, for pretending to find interesting what is dull, or for engaging in the various falsenesses that constitute cajolery. Nor am I a hypocrite for putting on a somber face at the news of the untimely death of a person I didn't especially care for. Says Trollope: “Will anyone dare to call this hypocrisy? If it be so called, who in the world is not a hypocrite? Where is the man or woman who has not a special face for sorrow before company? The man or woman who has no such face would at once be accused of heartless impropriety.” Were we to blame the mere donning of a role that our hearts weren't totally into as hypocrisy, we would be hypocrites all the time, except perhaps when asleep.

Even in sleep there is a trace of role-playing, of self-monitoring so as to maintain certain proprieties and a sense of responsibility, though not enough to give rise to hypocrisies.