These comments are interesting. Many commenters are noting that they wouldn't use a title for themselves because they haven't become high-level performers in that area, and that it is pretentious to do so. Others are saying that it is helpful for them in their performance in those areas.

Is a beginner runner still a runner? Is it necessary to add a qualifier? When do they become a runner if they aren't one already? Why is there resistance to labeling a beginning runner as a runner?

I think there is a vast difference between someone asking what I do for a living and replying "I'm a runner" versus someone asking "do you work out?" and replying "yeah, I like to run."

However, the difference in the mindset of the person replying to the workout question: "I'm a runner" versus "I like to run" is pretty profound, especially in the beginning stages of becoming a runner.

This effect has been explored.

> Motivating voter turnout by invoking the self

>Abstract: Three randomized experiments found that subtle linguistic cues have the power to increase voting and related behavior. The phrasing of survey items was varied to frame voting either as the enactment of a personal identity (e.g., “being a voter”) or as simply a behavior (e.g., “voting”). As predicted, the personal-identity phrasing significantly increased interest in registering to vote (experiment 1) and, in two statewide elections in the United States, voter turnout as assessed by official state records (experiments 2 and 3). These results provide evidence that people are continually managing their self-concepts, seeking to assume or affirm valued personal identities. The results further demonstrate how this process can be channeled to motivate important socially relevant behavior.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1103343108

Additionally, affirmations (which what this particular intervention actually is) have been shown to be beneficial in many areas. This is a nice overview:

>The Psychology of Change: Self-Affirmation and Social Psychological Intervention

>Abstract: People have a basic need to maintain the integrity of the self, a global sense of personal adequacy. Events that threaten self-integrity arouse stress and self-protective defenses that can hamper performance and growth. However, an intervention known as self-affirmation can curb these negative outcomes. Self-affirmation interventions typically have people write about core personal values. The interventions bring about a more expansive view of the self and its resources, weakening the implications of a threat for personal integrity. Timely affirmations have been shown to improve education, health, and relationship outcomes, with benefits that sometimes persist for months and years. Like other interventions and experiences, self-affirmations can have lasting benefits when they touch off a cycle of adaptive potential, a positive feedback loop between the self-system and the social system that propagates adaptive outcomes over time. The present review highlights both connections with other disciplines and lessons for a social psychological understanding of intervention and change.

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-psych...