Everybody wants to see themselves in a positive light. That’s the key to understanding Jonah Berger’s simple tactic that makes people 30% more likely to do what you ask. Berger is a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the bestselling author of “Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way.”Berger explained the technique using a Stanford University study involving preschoolers. The researchers messed up a classroom and made two similar requests to groups of 5-year-olds to help clean up.One group was asked, "Can you help clean?" The other was asked, “Can you be a helper and clean up?" The kids who were asked if they wanted to be a “helper” were 30% more likely to want to clean the classroom. The children weren’t interested in cleaning but wanted to be known as “helpers.”Berger calls the reframing of the question as 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.”Berger says that learning to reframe requests to appeal to people’s identities will make you more persuasive.“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.”This technique doesn’t just work because people want to see themselves in a positive light. It also works for the opposite. People also want to avoid seeing themselves being portrayed negatively.“Cheating is bad, but being a cheater is worse. Losing is bad, being a loser is worse,” Berger says.The same tactic can also be used to persuade ourselves to change our self-concept. Saying you like to cook is one thing, but calling yourself a chef is an identity. “I’m a runner. I’m a straight-A student. We tell little kids, ‘You don’t just read, you’re a reader,’” Berger says. “You do these things because that’s the identity you hold.”Berger’s work shows how important it is to hone our communication skills. By simply changing one word, we can get people to comply with our requests more effectively. But, as Berger says, words are magic and we have to use thgem skillfully. “We think individual words don’t really matter that much. That’s a mistake,” says Berger. “You could have excellent ideas, but excellent ideas aren’t necessarily going to get people to listen to you.”This article originally appeared on 2.11.24

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Israel and the entire Middle East continue to witness rising escalation, as Iran has managed to push the region closer to cataclysm.  Early Tuesday morning, Iran launched around 200 ballistic missiles from Iranian territory into Israel. The attack was carried out by the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps. Using more sophisticated ballistic missiles, the Iranians managed to hit areas in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Fortunately, and despite the triumphalist attitude from the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps and Iranian media, few missiles hit their targets. The Israel Defense Forces stated that many of the missiles were successfully intercepted thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome and other missile defense systems, as well as the assistance of the U.S. Navy.  As pretext for this attack, Iran is citing Israel’s recent operations in Southern Lebanon against Iran’s proxy terrorist group Hezbollah, especially the Israeli airstrike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan.  Iran’s Mission to the United Nations released a statement on X confirming Iran’s responsibility for the assault on Tuesday. Iran stated that the attack was a “legal, rational, and legitimate response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime.” Tehran warned: “Should the Zionist regime dare to respond or commit further acts of malevolence, a subsequent and crushing response will ensue.”  Besides Iran’s direct missile barrage aimed at Israel, Iran’s leadership celebrated the news of a terrorist attack carried out by two men in the Jaffa area of Tel Aviv moments before Iran’s attack. The two gunmen shot innocent civilians coming off a tram as well as other bystanders, resulting in the death of eight people and injuries to nine more. Their assault finally ended once Israeli security forces managed to take down both men. In a post on X, Iran’s Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei congratulated the killers, calling them martyrs, as well as giving his condolences to their families. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel’s intention to engage in some kind of retaliatory operation against Iran for the attack. Following a political-security meeting, Netanyahu said that, “Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it.” He vowed: “Those who attack us; we attack them.”  While the Biden administration has expressed support for Israel in the wake of Iran’s attack, the question of how dependable the United States will be as an ally remains to be seen. It’s no secret that the Biden administration’s policies toward Iran have done nothing more than embolden the Mullahs in Tehran, especially after the administration gave more than $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets back to Iran and restarted negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ flirtation with pro-Hamas protesters as well as efforts to force Israel into a ceasefire with Hamas have undermined Israel’s capacity to defend itself. Their actions have also damaged America’s own national security by undercutting our capacity to confront Iran and its proxy forces in the region.  To be an ally or not to be an ally? Well, that is the question, and one that Biden and Harris seem unwilling to answer at all. Their lack of resolve could have catastrophic consequences for Israel, the United States, and the entire Middle Eastern region. As the prospects of a wider war in the Middle East inch closer to becoming a nightmarish reality, the future of Israel and the region now hangs in the balance, and in the hands of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The post Iran Pushes the Middle East Closer to Catastrophe appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

The US and Another Key Middle East Partner, the United Arab Emirates