*Jonah Berger, a marketing professor and author of “Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way,” reveals a technique that increases the likelihood of compliance by 30%.
As Upworthy reports, the key is framing requests positively. Berger illustrates this using a Stanford study where preschoolers were asked to help clean a messy classroom. One group was asked to “help clean,” while the other was asked to be a “helper.” Those asked to be “helpers” were 30% more likely to participate, as they were drawn to the positive identity rather than the task itself. Berger calls this strategy “turning actions into identities.”
“It comes down to the difference between actions and identities. We all want to see ourselves as smart and competent and intelligent in a variety of different things,” Berger told Big Think.
“But rather than describing someone as hardworking, describing them as a hard worker will make that trait seem more persistent and more likely to last. Rather than asking people to lead more, tell them, ‘Can you be a leader?’ Rather than asking them to innovate, can you ask them to ‘Be an innovator’? By turning actions into identities, you can make people a lot more likely to engage in those desired actions.”
In other words, the kids in the classroom didn’t want to be tasked with cleaning, instead, they wanted to be seen as “helpers.”
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Reframing requests in a way that appeals to people’s identities will make you more persuasive, according to Berger.
“Framing actions as opportunities to claim desired identities will make people more likely to do them,” Berger tells CNBC Make It.
“If voting becomes an opportunity to show myself and others that I am a voter, I’m more likely to do it,” he added.
Those who want to avoid negative portrayals of themselves may also benefit from this technique.
“Cheating is bad, but being a cheater is worse. Losing is bad, being a loser is worse,” Berger said.
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