Having An Easy To Pronounce Name Makes You More Likable
A new study has found that despite our best efforts to like someone for who they are we find it easier to like people who have easy to pronounce names.
Published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology in December the study’s co-author reveals:
“When we can process a piece of information more easily, when it’s easier to comprehend, we come to like it more,”
The idea of “Fluency” or the fact that the brain favors easy to process information started in the 1960s and researchers for the new study used that theory to examine how we perceive people with easy to pronounce names.
The study found that people can partly predict a persons education and income level based on the ability to pronounce their first name.
The study also found that boys with girl names are more likely to be suspended from school and a child with a less popular and easy to pronounce name is more likely to be a delinquent.
To determine how much a pronunciation of a name guides perception the researchers used the following names.
- Leszczynska
- Vougiouklakis
- Colquhoun
- Loughnane
- Mathieson
- MacDonaugh
- Kupka
- Jarvis
- Matson
- Sherman
Researchers then asked 19 female and 16 male college students to rank those name and 50 surnames according to their ease or difficulty of pronunciation, and according to how much they liked or disliked them.
In the second study they had 17 females and 7 male students rank hypothetical political candidates based on just their names.
A third part of the project asked 55 female and 19 male students to vote on candidates bout whom they knew both names and some political positions.
According to researchers a name’s pronounceability, regardless of length or seeming foreignness, mattered most in determining likability.
Do you think the ability to pronounce someones name can really make people like them more or less?
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James Johnson James is a new media professional with more than half a decade worth of experience in the online writing space. He currently serves as the Associate Editor of Inquisitr.com and the Editor-in-Chief of SocialNewsDaily.com. He also serves as a resident writer for Splash Press Media. In his spare time James consults businesses regarding SEO and Content Development.
