The Shuffle Experiment

We ran the Shuffle: swap personas while controlling for position. If persona drives behavior, survival follows persona. If model drives behavior, survival follows model.

What we got was neither — and both.

Mistral × Citizen: 95% survival. Mistral × Merchant: 15%. An 80-point swing from the same model.

EXAONE barely moved. Same experiment, opposite response.

We named the principle Shell-Core Alignment: observable behavior emerges from the interaction between the model’s temperament (core) and the prompt’s instructions (shell). Neither alone predicts the outcome.