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A conceptual exploration of how personal identity is influenced by external observation, interpretation, and social expectations. The paper introduces the Assignment Gap and Missing Cards Principle to examine the distinction between experienced, expressed, and assigned identity. Using three anonymous poker players as a visual thought experiment, it questions how much of another person’s identity we discover versus construct. Cover artwork concept and art direction by Elyse Meagan Estes, created with AI assistance and visually inspired by René Magritte, particularly The Son of Man (1964). This paper presents a speculative conceptual framework and has not been peer-reviewed.
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Elyse Meagan Estes (2026) studied this question.
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