How to Establish a Behavior Profile: 2 Things to Identify

What’s a behavior profile? What can you learn from someone’s profile?

According to Chase Hughes, a behavior profile is an inventory of information about someone based on your observations of them: It gives you an understanding of their motivations, goals, and tendencies.

Keep reading if you want to know how to build a behavior profile of someone.

Building a Behavior Profile

Hughes explains that to form a behavior profile, you’ll identify someone’s social needs and decision-making style based on their speech and behavior within the first six minutes of interacting with them. In the next sections, we’ll explain how to rapidly ascertain these two key attributes. 

(Shortform note: Six minutes may not sound like enough time to form a profile, but experts suggest that we often make judgments about people in less time than that, due to the first impression bias: an unconscious tendency to form opinions about others based on the first things we perceive about them. This often happens in one minute or less. However, because these judgments are unconscious, they’re often rooted in prejudices or other factors that can skew our opinions. On the other hand, Hughes’s techniques, based on thorough research and spread out over the course of six minutes, may help provide a more accurate picture of others with less implicit bias.)

1. Identify Someone’s Social Needs

First, we’ll explore what social needs are and how to identify them. Then, we’ll explain how you can use this knowledge as an influential tool. 

Many people are familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which includes needs all people share—such as the need for safety, social belonging, and esteem. Hughes explains that, in addition to these universal needs, all humans have social needs, which they attempt to meet through their interactions with others. There are six social needs, according to Hughes, each with a corresponding fear:

• The need to feel important (and the fear of being dismissed or mocked)
• The need for approval (and the fear of rejection or disdain)
• The need for acceptance (and the fear of criticism or alienation)

• The need to be perceived as intelligent (and the fear of being seen as dumb)
• The need to be pitied (and the fear of being ignored or disbelieved)
• The need to be perceived as powerful (and the fear of being disrespected or challenged)

Hughes explains that everyone has two of these six needs.

Hughes writes that you can identify someone’s needs based on their behavior and, in some cases, their appearance. For example, someone who needs to feel important may have extravagant status symbols like expensive clothing or accessories. Someone who needs approval may show people-pleasing tendencies. Someone who needs to be perceived as powerful may talk loudly in public and tell stories about what a great leader they are.

Use Social Needs to Establish Rapport and Influence Behavior

Hughes explains that you can use information about someone’s social needs to quickly establish rapport with them—and then, potentially influence their behavior. 

To establish rapport, he says, subtly communicate that you can meet their need in some way. For example, if you know your employee has a need for approval, saying things like, “You’re doing a great job,” can quickly win them over. Or, if they need to be perceived as powerful, you can float the idea of a promotion to get them to do what you’d like them to do.

To influence someone’s behavior, Hughes continues, imply that the behavior you want them to do will ensure their needs are met. For example, if you’re trying to convince a friend to seek therapy, and you know they’re someone who needs to feel pitied, you could say something like, “When I started therapy, I felt so validated. My therapist affirmed that my problems were significant and needed attention.” You’re not telling them what to do, but you’re implying that what you want them to do will fulfill their need for sympathy.

Use Fears to Influence Behavior

Hughes explains that you can also use the fear that corresponds to someone’s social need to influence their behavior—specifically, to get them to stop an undesired behavior. To do this, suggest that the undesired behavior would make their fear a reality.

For example, imagine you’re selling car insurance and you have a customer who’s deciding whether to purchase your services. You’ve identified that they need to be perceived as intelligent—which means they fear being perceived as dumb. You share a story of someone who chose not to purchase your insurance, got in an accident, and then found that their chosen insurance company wouldn’t cover the damage. You lament how they should have been more discerning in their decision, suggesting that they made an unintelligent choice by not choosing your services. Your potential client doesn’t want you to think they’re dumb, too, so they buy your insurance. 

2. Identify Someone’s Decision-Making Style

Next, we’ll look at Hughes’s second component of a behavior profile—decision-making style. Identifying someone’s decision-making style gives you insight into how they make their choices, enabling you to understand—and potentially influence—those choices.

According to Hughes, six factors motivate all of our decisions, from making a purchase, to going on a date, to confessing to a crime:

1. Deviance: You make decisions that ensure you stand out from the crowd, such as buying a flashy car instead of a more modest one.
2. Novelty: You make decisions that lead to new experiences or compel others to view you as a trendsetter, such as wearing the latest fashion.
3. Social image: You make decisions that influence others to view you positively or that facilitate connections with others, such as taking the lead on a charitable community bake sale.
4. Conformity: You make decisions that help you blend in with your peers, such as taking on the religious beliefs of your friends or family.
5. Investment: You make decisions that get you the most out of what you invest, such as only agreeing to a second date with someone based on whether you can imagine having a long-term relationship with them.
6. Necessity: You make decisions that fulfill a practical material need, such as only buying essentials and avoiding frivolous spending.

Most people’s decision-making styles will align with at least two of these factors, and according to Hughes, people are more likely to be motivated by factors that are adjacent to each other in this list. For example, someone primarily motivated by investment is likely to also be motivated by conformity and necessity (though to a lesser degree). 

Use Decision-Making Style to Build Rapport

Hughes explains that you can quickly build rapport with someone by conveying that you use the same decision-making style as them (even if it’s not your primary style). For example, you notice that someone has a hairstyle that stands out from the crowd and deduce that they have a deviance-based decision-making style. To build rapport with them, you bring up an interest of yours that deviates from the norm, such as a passion for competitive dog grooming. 

Use Decision-Making Style to Influence Behavior

To influence someone’s decisions, subtly communicate to them that the decision you want them to make is the one that best fits their decision-making style. 

For example, imagine you’re interviewing a potential employee. You’re impressed, and you want them on your team. When you ask why they got into this line of work, they explain that many of their friends also chose this career path—revealing a conformity-based decision-making style. To convince them to choose your company, you might say something like, “We have a lot of employees in your age group who really seem to like it here.” To tap into the adjacent social image-based decision-making style, you could also highlight some of your company’s charitable activities.