Be a voter

If you haven’t yet, I hope you vote today. Perhaps more importantly, I hope you encourage others to do the same. When you do, the words that you use matter.

Asking someone to vote is a great thing, but encouraging them to “be a voter” has been found to be 15% more effective.

In his book “Magic Words“, author Jonah Berger shares this:

Turning action words into identity words (verbs into nouns) is effective because we all strive to uphold positive self‐images and avoid labels that make us look bad. One study found that when election campaigns talked about “being a voter,” instead of simply asking people to vote, they increased voter turnout by 15%. Another study found that students who heard, “Don’t be a cheater” cheated half as much as students who received the words, “Don’t cheat.”

Today is a big day for the United States. Be a voter.