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Does your name fit your face? |
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Written by Hillary Rhodes, asap
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Tuesday, 22 May 2007 |
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Your face might be the only name tag you need. That is, if you have the right look.
Researchers at Miami University say some names are commonly associated with certain facial features, and that remembering others’ names has something to do with how close they match our preconceptions about how people with that label appear.
If your name is Jason but you look like a Tim, people might not recall your name as easily.
And what does a Tim look like? According to Robin Thomas, associate professor of psychology at the university, Tims are commonly thought to have thin, angular faces.
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NAME-FACE TESTING
Thomas and her team conducted three experiments to reach a conclusion that there might be “a more direct relationship between faces and names than has been previously proposed,” according to their article, “Who Do You Look Like? Evidence of Facial Stereotypes for Male Names,” which has been accepted for publication in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.
First, they brought 150 people in to create images using face creation software. Participants were given one of 15 common male names such as John, Mark, Bob and Brian, and then they designed virtual faces whose features they deemed appropriate for that name.
Second, new participants were asked to determine which faces among those made in the first experiment best fit their assigned names. The results there were then used for the last part of the study: a memory test.
The researchers gave members of a third participant group varying lists of names randomly matched to faces. Then they tested how well the participants would be able to recall the pairings.
The results showed a greater facility recalling the names for the faces with which they had earlier been associated.
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WHAT ABOUT BOB? ... AND JOE?
Bobs had rounder, larger faces, according to Thomas.
Jasons had larger ears and a squarer, long chin.
Brian had bigger eyes and a square, athletic face.
Bill had thin eyes and a bigger face.
There was very little agreement for the name Joe. “Joe was an average-looking guy,” Thomas said.
But if the results of this study are valid, what does it mean? What’s the source of these possible common name-face associations?
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MOUTHS MIMIC LIFE
Thomas said the shape of the name sounds could inform our associations. “Bob” sounds round, so the face must be round. Tim sounds thin.
That sounds plausible, said a neuroscience professor at the University of Southern California.
“With Bob, you’re rounding your lips and puffing them out a little bit. With Tim, you’re sucking in your cheeks a little bit,” Irving Biederman said.
A cognitive neuroscientist, Biederman has seen similar patterns in his shape recognition studies.
There’s a classic experiment, he said, where you show people two imaginary islands. One has rounded edges and one has sharp, angular edges. Given the two optional names Maluma and Kontiki, people invariably assign the former to the rounded island and the latter to the angular island. The sound of the titles mimic the shapes.
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OTHER POSSIBILITIES
The association could also be the result of an indirect relationship to personality traits.
There’s some scientific evidence to say some names are linked to certain traits, Thomas said. So maybe people are associating the name with the personality trait and then drawing the face that goes with the trait.
But what if names are a self-fulfilling prophesy? People are said to look like their dogs. Maybe they also start looking like their names?
“It would be spooky to think that if you looked out at the world and measured all of the Bills and Bobs, that they actually do in fact look like that, given that we name our babies at birth and we have no idea what they look like,” Thomas said.
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Hillary Rhodes is an asap reporter based in New York. | Only registered users can write comments.
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