96. People Want to Keep a Consistent Persona

Someone knocks on your door. You recognize him as a kid from your neighborhood. He is selling popcorn as a fund-raiser for a club he is a member of at school. The club is trying to go to the state convention. How do you react? It depends on the story, or persona, you have of yourself when it comes to topics such as school, fund-raising, and your relationship to your neighborhood. Here’s one story you might relate to:

“I’m a very busy person. When I’m at home I want to relax, not get bombarded with people at the door selling things. I don’t like it when people bother me at home with these fund-raising schemes. The schools should pay for these trips and not make us buy this overpriced popcorn. This poor kid isn’t to blame, but I’m not going to buy the popcorn because it just perpetuates this behavior. Someone has got to act right on this. I’m the kind of person who does what is right on principle. I’m going to say no nicely but firmly.”

Or maybe you can relate to this story:

“Oh, isn’t that great that the kids are going to the state convention. I remember when I went on a similar trip when I was in high school. It was really fun. Maybe not all that educational, but definitely fun! I’m the kind of person who encourages students to have lots of experiences outside of our own neighborhood. I am the kind of person who supports the school. I’ll buy some popcorn and help this kid out.”

Or maybe you can relate to this story:

“It kind of annoys me that there are always these kids selling things. But this is part of being a good neighbor. I’m part of the community. I am a good citizen of our neighborhood. I’ll buy the popcorn because that’s what a good community member would do.”

People Have Personas

People have an idea of who they are and what’s important to them. Essentially they have a “story” operating about themselves at all times. These self-stories, or personas, are powerful influencers on decisions and actions.

People actually have more than one persona. There are different personas for different aspects of life in relation to others. For example, there is a persona you might have as a husband or wife, another persona as a parent, another persona at work, and yet another persona that defines your relationship with the neighborhood you live in. People make decisions based on staying true to their personas. Most of this decision-making based on personas happens unconsciously. Some aspects of personas are conscious or might even be pulled into consciousness, but most of the time the personas are under the surface.

People Want Personas to Stay Consistent

These personas are important in decision-making because people strive to be consistent in their decision-making. There is a drive to make the personas “stick.” People will make decisions in order to have their personas stay consistent. This means that there is a higher likelihood that someone will take a particular action if a persona is “activated.”

Once we make one decision consistent with one of the personas, we will try to stay consistent with that persona. We will be more likely to make a decision or take an action if it is consistent with that story or persona.

Tell Persona Stories

You can activate a persona and connect the persona to a specific action. This will be influential in getting people to take action. For example, if you are giving a presentation about the charity you run, and the call to action in the presentation is to have people donate, don’t just ask people to donate money to your charity. Tell a story about a person and show how that person’s values convinced him or her to donate.

Be Specific

If you want to activate personas, you need to be specific. Don’t hint at what someone should do, but instead tell them exactly what that type of person would do. For example, at the end of your presentation, when you are stating the call to action, instead of saying “I hope you will consider donating to our charity,” you could say, “Someone like Bill [the person you just told a story about] would show that they are a caring person by donating $50 to the XYZ charity.”