Are most people really this shallow?

[Peregrinus]

They will stop reciting their lines (or at the very least have attention drawn to their behavior) once they realize you aren't acting along with them.

I like that. This is very true, though they must be in a situation where they allow themselves to be vulnerable. In public is typically not one of those places.

Upon further thought, you are correct on your first point as well. Just as Ra said, many are stuck in a continually infantile stage on this planet, due to many factors.

The normal cycle of opening the chakras, in this incarnate experience, is one per seven years or so, beginning at birth. Many on this planet never open the first three, the primal chakras, and therefore stay "stuck" in the ego, which I believe is the red chakra, the me me me chakra.