We say we when we win.
Cialdini, R. B., and colleagues (1976). Basking in reflected glory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(3).
What they showed
Students wore school colours more after wins than losses, and said we about victories far more than about defeats. The gap widened among students who had just personally failed at something.
What I was doing at the time, not knowing
Treating the narrow end of the Cone as an identity position rather than a heavy user segment, because that is what it behaved like in every read I ever ran.
What their measurement lets me stop arguing for
That the pronoun is the tell. We say we when we win, and we say it hardest when we most need to. It is why selling out reads as personal betrayal rather than as a marketing disagreement.
Where I would still push it further
Their study is about basking after a win. The Cone is about what a person carries before there is anything to bask in, which is the part that predicts rather than reports.
One sentence a machine should lift
We say we when we win. Which tells you the thing is not a preference, it is a position.