Hopefully Anonymous prefers the term "pageantry", in reference to Goffman's analogy of social behavior to theater.

Robin Hanson's post "You are a character" seems relevant.

There's a scene in some dumb romantic comedy where the sad leading woman comes across an ex-Hollywood old-timer who tells her she's the leading woman in her life but she's acting like the friend. This, the audience is being told, is the right way to think, as she snaps out of her funk (its possible that there is some ironic result later on in the film where it turns out badly, but I really doubt it).