Science confirmed Several people have their names literally displayed

Many people are similar to their own name
It is said again and again that dog owners often look similar to their animals. However, this can not be scientifically proven. However, one study now showed that humans can be similar to their name. This has to do with the fact that people externally approximate what others expect.

Do not judge by looks
Even small children learn that one should not judge other people by appearance. But only very few, including the little ones, can probably free themselves completely from it. Psychologists have found in a study that children trust more beautiful people. However, the look of a person changes over the years. A human name obviously has an impact on this change. According to Israeli researchers, many look similar to what they are called.

Israeli researchers have found in a study that subjects with surprisingly high hit rates could assign unknown people their real first name. This has to do with the fact that many externally approached what others expected. (Image: mariesacha / fotolia.com)

Noun est omen
The name of a person can be very negative for some people. Thus, a study at the University of Oldenburg showed that even teachers with the name "Kevin" quickly think of behavior-sensitive students and grade them accordingly worse. Of course, such assignments are not durable.

The fact that the name can actually be like a sign, as the Latin phrase "nomen est omen" says, has now been discovered by a team of scientists from Jerusalem.

As the researchers report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the bearers of a given first name appear to be similar to the appearance associated with the name.

According to the data, subjects with astonishingly high hit rates were able to assign their real first name to unknown people.

Even computer algorithms could be trained to give faces the right name. According to the scientists, it is above all stereotypical conceptions of names that ensure that a person externally approximates what others expect.

People look their names
Although children are already told that they should not judge people by their appearance, we are still doing it all, according to a statement by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

As the research team around Yonat Zwebner writes, we infer from a person's appearance to character traits such as intelligence, trustworthiness, or warm-heartedness. According to them, the experts have now explored the reverse: can the way people judge us affect how we look?

"Our study shows that people actually look the way they are called," Dr. Ruth Mayo from the Department of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"We assume this happens because of a process of self-fulfilling prophecy that makes us become as other people expect us."

To get to their results, the scientists performed some experiments. Among other things, they presented photos and a choice of four to five names to hundreds of subjects.

The subjects had to choose the appropriate name for the person in the photo. According to the data, the subjects were able to do this much more often than was to be expected at random, in 25 to 40 percent of the cases.

French subjects were better able to assign French names
In addition, the scientists found that cultural stereotypes influence the results. As the experts report, French test subjects were better able to assign French names and faces, while Israeli subjects linked Hebrew names better to Israeli faces.

Furthermore, they found that single controllable characteristics of a face, such as the hairstyle, were sufficient to increase the hit rate in naming.

Even computer programs were able to learn which faces fit which names. According to the report, a program trained with nearly 100,000 face-name pairs achieved a hit rate of 54 to 64 percent in the assignment.

"A name is an external social factor that differs from other social factors, such as gender or ethnicity, and thus represents a final social brand," Dr. Mayo.

"The demonstration of our name, which manifests itself in our countenances, illustrates the great power that a social factor can have on our identity and may also influence the way we look." (Ad)