Next time Frank or Frannie tells you that it wasn’t their fault they failed the test you might want to listen up. This one is straight out of the files of “I can’t believe someone really studied this”. When skimming a recent issue of Newsweek I saw a brief story about a study about to be published in which it was found that people are more prone to do, prefer, or accept certain things that start with the same letter as their first initial. Huh? Research shows that people names Abby or Ben actually have a higher GPA (more As and Bs) then students whose name begins with C, D, or even F. Baseball players who name begins with a K (hello Ken Griffey, Jr.) strikeout more often than players who names begin with other letters. If that is the case, perhaps Homer Bailey shouldn’t be pitching, maybe he needs to bat cleanup….with a name like Homer.
Believe it or not this phenomenon is backed up by data from multiple research studies and even has its own name “name letter effect” or NLE. Research has shown that Mark is more likely to attend Miami, marry Molly, and move to Milford than is Connie who is more likely to attend Cincinnati, marry Chuck, and move to Cleveland. You can read the study right on the web and see all the data they have to back it up. Fascinating stuff! When you see the differences between the control group and the group inflicted with “unconscious self-liking” you think to yourself, well, they differences are so small. Surely it is just chance. However, in science, there is a saying that if something levitates (raising the number) you don’t focus on how high it levitated but why it moved at all….so the fact remains that there is a measureable distance between the two groups. So be careful what you name your children.
We really need to test this theory at school:
Does Jeff, John, Jen, Joni, Jason and Jon like jello more than other non-J teachers?
Do Betsy and Barb like brownies more than the other non-B teachers?
Do Pat, Pam, and Patty all prefer pralines more than the non-P teachers?
4 comments:
This is nuts. Furthermore, when I name my (future) children I already have several names that I will not ever under any circumstances choose for them. Now I have this to factor in! I guess you were smart in naming your little ones :)
I do wonder...who thinks of these things and has the time to carry them out?
I don't know, there may be something to this, I do REALLY like brownies.
Betsy-
I like brownies too...maybe I was misnamed.
Mark
Yikes! I did marry "John." My cousin Marcie married Mike and they have 4 daughters: Maddie; Mollie; Michaela; and Miranda! I guess I'll be looking closely when my kids start dating and bringing home those who have the same first initial. Though, I would not say Jello is at the top of list, I do enjoy shopping at the Jeffersonville Outlets!
-Jen
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