Recently, I was with a group of people where one of those present, (it may have been me), was referred to as a "prawn". I hadn’t heard this expression previously and recoiled when I learnt that it describes someone who has a remarkable body, (it was definitely me), but a renounceable head - oh dear! It comes from when you eat a prawn - you eat the body and throw away the head!
This was Gen Y at its labelling finest.
Have you ever been labelled? Have you ever labelled someone yourself? Everyone does it; occasionally it’s benign, sometimes it’s complimentary but more often than not it’s contemptuous. It starts from an early age and continues through life - he’s a Jock, she’s conscientious, he’s a back stabber. Assigning labels to things seems to be an integral part of the human experience. It helps us to explain and make sense of the world. But what real effect is there on behaviour, on being labelled?
Thirty years ago, American marketing research graduates, Alice Tybout and Richard Yalch, conducted a social experiment to test this. Just prior to an election, they surveyed people about their attitudes towards the different candidates and key socio-economic issues of the time. Then, while still in the company of the constituent, they compared the survey answers to a voter profile for an "average" person, and told the constituent, that, based on their answers, the likelihood they would vote was either average, or above-average, (note: voting in US elections is voluntary). In reality, however, the voter profile was fabricated and this label was allocated randomly.
Here’s how the labels were ascribed:
Above average label;
"That’s interesting, your profile indicates that, relative to others in this community, you are an above-average citizen. Our research shows that people like you are very likely to vote in elections and participate in political events."
Average label;
"That’s interesting, your profile indicates that, relative to others in this community, you are an average citizen. Our research shows that people like you have an average likelihood of voting in elections and participating in political events."
As you’ve probably guessed, labelling people as likely to vote did increase turnout - 87% of this group voted, versus 75% of the ’average’ group. More interestingly though, the label had the strongest effect on people who already thought of themselves as voters; who had what psychologists call a ’self-schema’ for voting. A ’self-schema’ is a generalisation you make about yourself based on your previous behaviour and experiences. A self-schema will tend to affect how you interpret and respond to other information you receive about yourself.
In this case, for example, people were more likely to vote when their self-schema and the label they received matched. Assuming this is true for every self-schema, you can see the potential for practical application. For example, labelling your workforce as hard working will have a bigger effect on productivity if they already see themselves as hard workers; though it will still have some effect if they don’t.
Fortunately therefore, being labelled a prawn won’t make you grow a carapace, antennae, compound eyes or feeding appendages but it may encourage you to behave like one and, more so if you thought of yourself as a creeping crustacean in the past.
There are plenty of ways that labelling can be applied with positive affect though. A junior sport's coach could tell their charges that they seem able and competent, a manager can tell their staff they are up to the task, and you could tell the object of your desires that they definitely seem like the type of person who appreciates the finer things in life - you! On second thoughts, perhaps not the last one - that was the ’creepy’ prawn in me again.
Oh, by the way, we were conducting some web analytics following the 100th edition of Status enews a few weeks ago, and it suddenly occurred to us that our readers are an incredibly discerning, progressive, intelligent and loyal group of professionals who like to read and share Status enews with their friends and business associates regularly!
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Gary Hatwell
Executive Chairman
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