Identity, Role, Altercasting: Voting and Selling

What if you want people to behave in a particular way? A teacher would want students to study, a shirt seller would want people to buy shirts and a political party would want people to vote for it. 

So, what should you do?

Use the subtle technique of persuasion called altercasting. Activate an identity or cast people into an identity which has a clearly defined role. People of that identity are expected to behave in a certain manner. Teachers are expected to teach and parents are expected to take care of their families.

Have you encountered a situation when your teacher told you, ‘You are a good student , you must do assignments on time’ or a colleague telling you, ‘Now that you have become a Vice President, get a car that fits your status’.

In these examples, an identity has been activated like that of a ‘good student’ and ‘person of position’. The actor (teacher and colleague) also called ‘Ego’ casts the ‘other’ into an identity (student and person with position) to elicit an intended response or task (do assignment and buy a car). These identities come with defined social roles or expectations. The result of this altercasting is that this process creates expectations to not violate the role or conform for two reasons:

First  is the need for validation. The role is validated  when behaviour conforms with the expectations.

Second, the violation activates the process of cognitive dissonance. Altercastng serves as a reminder of a role and expectations. The inconsistency between behavior and beliefs results in friction.

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People enter in the political market with multiple identities including gender, age, state, religion, caste. Which identity should a party bring to the fore or make salient that is consistent with the task (eliciting favorable response) or intended response.

BJP’s long-standing campaign seeks to make nationalist identity salient. This nationalist identity clearly casts people into a role that sets expectations to favour a party that is seen as legitimate custodian of the nation (by default the other parties are positioned as non-nationalistic) through a carefully crafted narrative. Once this identity is brought to the fore, the other identities are rendered less meaningful during the elections.

Conforming imperative imposed by this process aims to seek a common denominator across differences.

But the nationalistic narrative has power only when an enemy is perceived, real or imaginary. Will this evocation of nationalist identity work this time?