Believed-in identity and personality
How much of personality depends on believed-in identity?
This idea asks what would happen to personality expression if people forgot who they think they are, or if salient self-beliefs were temporarily weakened, disrupted, or reframed.
Possible study designs:
- Manipulate identity salience and observe changes in behavior, preferences, or self-report.
- Compare trait reports with behavior under conditions that reduce self-presentational or identity-based constraints.
- Test whether identity-based prompts shift openness, empathy, courage, or social behavior.
Key risks:
- “Forgetting who you are” is not experimentally realistic, so the construct needs operationalization.
- Personality, self-concept, and identity should not be collapsed too quickly.
Related ideas: