Tims don't look anything like Bobs
People who don't look like their names are easier to forget
By Melinda Wenner
LiveScience
Updated: 6:14 p.m. ET May 22, 2007
It's easier to remember a "Bill" who really fits the bill, according to a new study.
Names tend to be associated with certain facial features — Bobs have rounder faces than Tims, for example — and it's easier to learn a person's name if his face matches it.
Robin Thomas, a cognitive scientist at Miami University in Ohio, noticed that she frequently confused the names of two of her students. This didn't happen to her often, so she wondered if there was more to it than just forgetfulness.
Then she realized this. "Their faces did not fit the name they were given," Thomas said.
Intrigued, she decided to test whether Americans have common ideas about what people with certain names should look like.
She and her colleagues asked 150 college students to design faces, using facial construction software similar to the type police use, for 15 common American male names. To keep things simple, all of the faces were white and wore the same hairstyle.
Her team then asked a second group of students to rate how well these constructed faces seemed to fit their names. The group agreed that many of the constructs matched-the strongest fits were for the names Bob, Bill, Brian and Jason.
Finally, Thomas wanted to see whether, as in her own experience, better-fitting names were easier to remember and vice versa. Her team showed a third group of students the facial constructs-including both good and bad fits, as judged by the students in the second part of the study-along with their names. Later, they tested how well the students remembered the names.
As she suspected, people more easily remembered the names that fit well.
"The better the fit of the name to the face, the faster the participants were to learn to associate those names," Thomas told LiveScience. Her results will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
Thomas next plans to study why these stereotypes exist. Parents may, for example, name their babies to fit their general features, like the shapes of their faces.
And as for why certain names seem to accompany specific features, it could be that there is an interaction between a name's sound and how it's visually perceived, said Thomas.
For example, "Bob is a round sounding name, and the face that was generated for that name was round," she said.
Interesting, not all that surprising and some names are more obviously associated to certain features than others.
My own Test, Who's named Josh and Nazim?
Brotherhood of the Monkey @( !.! )@ To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. ~Steve Prefontaine Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
Nazim is going to be a muslim or hindu name or something, so odds are unless the man at the bottom is a Black Muslim (which I can't discount) that the top man is probably a very light arab or persian descended person. Josh meanwhile could be either of them.
So I'm putting it at more likely that Nazim is the top.
The reverse psychology of people associating Black with Foreign for usual redneck racism makes it more likely from a metagame perspective, too.
And as for why certain names seem to accompany specific features, it could be that there is an interaction between a name's sound and how it's visually perceived, said Thomas.
For example, "Bob is a round sounding name, and the face that was generated for that name was round," she said.
Oh just to let you people know, top is Nazim and bottom is Josh. If you looked at my avatar you might have noticed that the picture was me. I'm turkish and spanish the bottom guy is indian, not black.
Brotherhood of the Monkey @( !.! )@ To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. ~Steve Prefontaine Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
I was going to say, Indian Muslims aren't all that common, are they?
A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.
Can't Pakistanis be considered Indian since they are all part of the Indian sub-continent?
Brotherhood of the Monkey @( !.! )@ To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift. ~Steve Prefontaine Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
