Persona prompting
Explicitly telling the model to adopt a character or perspective — doctor, poet, skeptic — to shape reasoning and tone.
Think of it like
Method acting: the model immerses itself in a character.
Example
"You are a seasoned detective. Analyze this crime scene." vs. just "Analyze this crime scene."
How it actually works
Personas work by leveraging associations learned during training. A "data scientist" persona elicits analytical language. A "therapist" persona elicits empathy. Personas can be combined with other techniques. Over-specific personas ("a 400-year-old vampire who codes in Rust") may cause hallucination.
For product teams
Inexpensive way to steer behavior and tone.
For engineers
Test personas for consistency. Avoid hallucination in overly specific personas.
Related
- Role prompting — Related to role prompting.
- Assistant persona — Assistant persona defines the bot's character.
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