The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves: A Narrative-Based Intervention to Shape Aspects of Identity

Anne Hamby, Brooke Heller, Krishna Pakala, Eric Jankowski and Patrick Lowenthal

Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2026, vol. 11, issue 1, 39 - 50

Abstract: We present a collaborative, theory-informed intervention to help shape aspects of identity in prosocial ways. We integrate theory from several fields of psychology to develop and test a storytelling-based approach to bolster specific aspects of consumers’ identities. We outline how expertise possessed by different stakeholder groups (i.e., storytelling expertise, population expertise) can be collaboratively combined. This combination yields an approach that can be tailored to influence specific aspects of identity in various consumer domains and generate a broader societal impact. We provide a guide that can aid other researchers and practitioners in enacting their own identity-focused interventions, contributing to the literature on collaborative approaches to create positive societal impact. We also report both qualitative and quantitative results as an illustrative case. We further conclude with a robust set of directions for future research on the topic.

Date: 2026
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