Have you ever heard of Stevland Judkins or Marion Morrison ? Probably not . That ’s because today they go by their more well - known name Stevie Wonder and John Wayne . New research suggests our first names alter how people judge our personality , age , and competence – and it could intend some classical psychological science experiments are wrong .
Researchers from Syracuse University asked 500 college students to rate the 400 most pop names from the 1950s to 2009 based on how old , warm , and competent they believed the person to be .
Generally mouth , female name calling were associated with passion but not competency , while male were perceived as extremely competent but not very warm . Certain names , like Dolores or Donald , were perceived to be much aged than other name , such as Danielle or Devon .
People perceived as highly competent and warm : Ann , Anna , Caroline , Daniel , David , Elizabeth , Emily , Emma , Evelyn , Felicia , Grace , James , Jennifer , John , Jonathan , Julie , Kathleen , Madeline , Mark , Mary , Matthew , Michael , Michelle , Natalie , Nicholas , Noah , Olivia , Paul , Rachel , Samantha , Sarah , Sophia , Stephen , Susan , Thomas , and William .
name associated with low competency but warmth : Hailey , Hannah , Jessie , Kellie , Melody , and Mia .
Those who are highly competent but not very quick : Arnold , Gerald , Herbert , Howard , Lawrence , Norman , Reginald , and Stuart .
citizenry perceived with lowcompetenceand humbled warmth : Alvin , Brent , Bryce , Cheyenne , Colby , Crystal , Dana , Darrell , Devon , Dominic , Dominique , Duane , Erin , Larry , Leslie , Lonni , Malachi , Marcia / Marco , Mercedes , Omar , Regina , Rex , Roy , Tracy , Trenton , Vicki , and Whitney .
The researchers conceive this could have implications for past psychology studies , which often used fictional characters in hypothetical billet . It could be that a individual ’s percept of a name skews the results .
For instance , onestudyfound that selfsame essays written by " John " and " Joan " meet significantly different gradation . At the prison term , the authors believed it exemplified sexism in the seventies , but novel grounds advise the unlike grades could have been because people were biased against Joan ’s seemingly sometime age . Inanother , teacher were found to grade bookman ’s work more favourably if the name was pop at the time . The researchers say studies like these should now be double using name with comparable rating to eliminate any underlying variable quantity of perception .
A limit of the subject field was the fact that researcher were n’t able to report for a person ’s personal experience with a name . For exemplar , if a individual date a " Luke " , then they may forever and a day have a disconfirming perception of any " Luke " endure forward .
The full list is published inPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin .
