Conclusion
Our main point here is that fake kindness is a specific form of symbolic
violence through which the dominants assert their power in asymmetric
social relations. The effectiveness of fake kindness doesn’t rest on
deception – fooling victims into believing that they are facing a
well-meaning interlocutor – but on limiting the social repertoire
victims can use.
The nature of fake kindness also makes it a sneaky expression of
symbolic power whose effectiveness rests for a large part on
institutional complicity to support and sustain it. Professional
organizations and regulators, academic settings and care delivery
institutions that incorporate and enforce strong civility and propriety
requirements will also boost both the prevalence and effectiveness of
fake kindness.
In our view, the conceptualization of fake kindness that we developed is
especially relevant for nursing. The profession’s enthrallment for
caring as a behavioural and moral compass constitutes it as a social
field especially propitious to fake kindness. While proponents of the
caring mantra likely believe they are supporting a healthy and
supportive professional and institutional culture, we do not share this
simplistic and optimistic view. The structuring of social expectations
and rules that the caring culture fosters might have more to do with
maintaining existing hierarchies and enforcing obedience than with
anything else. We believe that professions which create the underlying
conditions for fake kindness to be effective and prevalent will also
fosters a context propitious to bullying. In this context, we would
leave the last word to Walker “The idea that a ‘good nurse is a
nice nurse’ […] is no longer viable in the 21st century ”
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