Do You Look Like Your Name?

[DrmDoc]

According to this article's title, "Science Says We Look So Much Like Our Names, Strangers Could Guess Them". The article discusses the possibility of recognition by name based on a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The article also discusses the implications for computer applications. As to validity, I've was told that I don't look like a "DrmDoc". Enjoy!

[dimreepr]

I think this question may go way deeper than we might think, my parents chose my name partly because of their individual cultures, the question then becomes, how did that, dual culture, influence my mine?

Edited March 10, 2017 by dimreepr

[DrKrettin]

One hundred twenty-one Israeli students .. (60 women, all native speakers, Mage 27.77 years [sD 4.08]) participated in the study in return for the equivalent of US$2.30.

 

 

Wow - the whole study cost $278. No comment on my name, by the way.

[Lord Antares]

This makes no sense. It implies that people develop looks based on the name they are given. If they were given a different name, they would have developed different looks. Clearly, this isn't true.

 

Also, that statistic doesn't prove anything. If we really could guess someone's name based on their looks, then we wouldn't need a choice of 4 names, but we could guess it on our own with a higher-than-expected accuracy.

 

They could have simply given some choices of rare or unsuitable names, which would explain 30% accuracy. To me, this research doesn't mean anything.

[jimmydasaint]

I scanned the published paper rapidly and found the following in the Discussion section:

 

In an interesting recent article, Kramer and Jones (2015) re-

ported results that may seem to contradict ours. Specifically, in one

study they found evidence that American women were able to

identify American faces from names at significantly above-chance

levels of accuracy. However, in a second study they failed to

replicate this result with a new set of British faces and participants,

leading the authors to conclude that they found no overall evidence

suggesting an association between names and faces. Notably, they

used a different methodology, presenting participants with two

faces that appeared with one name and asking, “Which of these individuals is named X?”

http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-pspa0000076.pdf

[Moontanman]

According to this article's title, "Science Says We Look So Much Like Our Names, Strangers Could Guess Them". The article discusses the possibility of recognition by name based on a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The article also discusses the implications for computer applications. As to validity, I've was told that I don't look like a "DrmDoc". Enjoy!

 

 

So you are saying I look like a Dumass? LMAO!

[DrmDoc]

 

 

So you are saying I look like a Dumass? LMAO!

 

Ha!

[mistermack]

Since this is an Israeli Study done at the Hebrew University, it might not apply to the rest of the world in general.

 

Jews in Israel have historically come together from different parts of the world, and names that are popular in families might have ties to different jewish communities, in different parts of the world. So in their case, a certain kind of face may well be reflected in a name.

 

The people who took part in the study are probably some of the worst people you could pick, for such a project.

[DrmDoc]

Since this is an Israeli Study done at the Hebrew University, it might not apply to the rest of the world in general.

 

Jews in Israel have historically come together from different parts of the world, and names that are popular in families might have ties to different jewish communities, in different parts of the world. So in their case, a certain kind of face may well be reflected in a name.

 

The people who took part in the study are probably some of the worst people you could pick, for such a project.

 

I read their paper and saw that the researchers, from France and Israel, did conduct a cross-cultural study that included a nearly equal number of both French (117) and Israeli (123) participants. Their limited cultural sampling and small number of participants do suggest to me that further validation of their results may be required.

[mistermack]

I saw a woman on the tv a few days ago, and the thought popped into my head that she looked really Welsh.

She was wearing ordinary clothes, and the sound was off. Then they put her name up, a University doctor or prof. and her name was a very Welsh name, and with the sound up, she sounded a bit Welsh.

I was just going by her face, she could have been from anywhere, but the thought just occurred to me that she looked particularly Welsh, for some odd reason.

If her name had come up, against her face, I would have chosen it without hesitation.

Nothing to do with the name matching her face. Just both matching a certain location. But if the two equally Welsh names had come up, I would have had to guess.

Edited March 12, 2017 by mistermack

[DrmDoc]

Nothing to do with the name matching her face. Just both matching a certain location. But if the two equally Welsh names had come up, I would have had to guess.

 

I think your experience suggests that facial recognition by name applications have more cultural significance than in heterogeneous societies where cultures mix and names become cross-cultural. In those cross-cultural society types, for example, I think we'd find little success in associating names such as John, Michael, or Alex with Asian citizens who have taken those names.