They should be.
I put on an act which included fake tears to de-escalate a situation with the lad...
I pretended to be just as torn up about the ancient truck in garage not working as he is.
If he thinks other people care about what he's concerned about, he'll be reasonable. Otherwise, he has a fit trying to show you how affected he is.
It worked, but that's too much energy.
That's nothing. I spoke to 3 different people while walking the dog and pretended to be interested in whatever it was they were telling me.