Is there a word to describe someone who does nice things for others, only to make themselves look or feel good?
I'm looking for a word that can describe a person who does nice things for other people (e.g holding the door open, carrying someone's things) but only for self gain; this person only does nice things to make themselves look good in the eyes of others, but doesn't actually care about the well-being of the people they're helping.
If you had said two words I would have then suggested 'smug samaritan' which would have been rather close to your need. But if that is a mouthful, then what about sanctimonious or self-congratulatory.
This might be difficult to pin down, but this might be close: Self-satisfying
Reference.com has it as:
Self-satisfying
adjective
- effecting satisfaction to oneself.
- disingenuous
oxforddictionaries - disingenuous : Not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does
ie. they are being disingenuous by feigning their concern for others
It might be a bit broad in its precision here but is not incorrect.
I'd lean toward one of the senses of false:
- not genuine; counterfeit.
or fake:
- designed to deceive or cheat; not real; counterfeit.
I'd use it to modify another adjective if I were given two words:
- falsely accommodating
- falsely chivalrous
- fakely polite
Either can also be used on its own as well:
- She is false (but may be archaic, see below)
- She is so false (seems more modern somehow)
- He is fake / He is so fake
- He is a fake
...but it doesn't say what about the person is false/fake. Using false in that sense may also be somewhat archaic; the phrase "false person" seems to have peaked in about 1823 and to my ear "She/he is false" sounds quite Austin-like. :-)
Self-aggrandising, perhaps (to increase one's power, status, or wealth (OED))