Say, for example, that you are always on time at the job, never cause any problems, and always have a kind word for everyone.  Are you polite, thorough, and conscientious or are you a suck up trying to please the boss? 

Those are two wildly different explanations, or "attributions" in persuasion terms.  The "Why, Because" persuasion play shows how explanations drive change.  Depending upon how people explain why you do what you do, their thoughts, feelings, and actions will change.

A great example of this attribution effect comes from a persuasion experiment.  Researchers hired one professional piano teacher, a man, to provide a standardized free piano lesson for people, men and women, participating in an experiment on instructional methods.  This professional teacher delivered the same lesson for each person, but the experimenters varied the introduction each "student" got when meeting the "teacher."  Away from the "teacher," the experimenters randomly assigned one of two introductions to each "student."  The experimenter told some students the teacher was doing this teaching as a "volunteer" while they told the others he was a "paid professional."  The "teacher" then delivered the standardized lesson.  The experimenters videotaped the lesson and had each "student" complete rating scales on the teacher and the lesson.  What happened?

The type of introduction made not only a statistically significant difference, it also made a practical difference.  Students with the "volunteer" teacher rated his teaching as better, more interesting and enjoyable, and also spent more free time playing new songs when left alone compared to the "paid professional" teacher.

Now, recall that the teacher delivered the same standard piano lesson for each student and did not know anything about the introductions.  The teacher just taught.  But, students perceived the teacher's effort differently and also behaved differently depending upon the "Why, Because" play.  When confronted with the "paid" teacher, students made the obvious attribution:  He's only doing this for the love of money.  By contrast, the "volunteer" teacher elicited different explanations:  He's doing it for the love of music and teaching.

This example alerts you to a powerful insight.  People can observe you being natural, sincere, and authentic and arrive at very scary conclusions.  Thus, you being you does not necessarily communicate who you really are and explain why you do what you do.

If you are concerned about how people understand you, what can you do about it?  How can you get people to attribute your efforts truly and correctly?  You know that, left to their own devices, people can see you the wrong way and you want to control that. 

In the next post we'll look at how to do this with the "Why, Because" persuasion play.