Implicit Egotism: Do People Make Life Decisions Based On The Letters of Their Names? - - TIME Healthland
What's in a name? Letters that offer clues to one's future decisions, apparently.
Previous studies have suggested that a person's monogram may influence his life choices — where he works, whom he marries or where he lives — because of "implicit egotism," or the allure of positive self-associations. For instance, a person named Fred might be attracted to the notion of living in Fresno, working for Forever 21 or driving a Ford F-150. (More on Time.com: Young Adults Choose Self-Esteem Boost Over Sex and Money)
Now a new study by Wharton professor Uri Simonsohn takes another look at the so-called name-letter effect and offers other explanations for the phenomenon. Simonsohn analyzed records of political donations in the U.S. during the 2004 campaign — which included donors' names and employers — and found that the name of a person's workplace more closely correlated with the first three letters of a person's name than with just the first letter. But Simonsohn suggests that the reason for the association isn't implicit egotism [PDF], but perhaps something exactly the opposite:
One alternative explanation [to implicit egotism] for these findings is reverse causality: Rather than employees seeking out companies with similar names, people starting new companies may name them after themselves. Walt Disney worked [...]
Interesting in light of numerology, although I'd expect the people conducting these studies to have no use for it whatsoever. :)
Comments
Post a Comment