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The impact of middle names: Middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance

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Abstract

Middle name initials often appear in formal contexts, especially when people refer to intellectual achievements. Based on this common link, the display of middle initials increases positive evaluations of people’s intellectual capacities and achievements. We document this effect in seven studies: Middle initials in authors’ names increased the evaluation of their writing performance (Study 1), and middle initials increased perceptions of status (Studies 2 & 4). Moreover, the middle initial effect was specific to intellectual performance (Studies 3 & 6), and it was mediated by perceived status (Studies 5, 6, & 7). Besides supporting our hypotheses, the results of the studies yield important implication for everyday life.

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... Van Tilburg and Igou (2014) recently documented that the presence of middle name initials leads to more favorable inferences about people's status, their intellectual capacity and their performance. We argue that people associate middle initials with formal situations where intellectual capacity and performance matter (e.g., a doctor's office, a lawyer's letter head, an academic certificate). ...
... We examined the association between middle initials and authorship order in academic journal articles in psychology. Our previous research (Van Tilburg and Igou, 2014) demonstrates that middle initials in names positively influence perceived intellectual capacity and performance. According to APA guidelines, contribution should be reflected in authorship order: the greater the contribution, the earlier the listing in the byline. ...
... As it stands, our studies seem to point to a potential bias in academic decision making, consistent with the earlier results that middle initials lead people to infer greater quality of an essay than no middle initials (Van Tilburg and Igou, 2014). Given that authorship order symbolically represents achievement, it should be unbiased. ...
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Middle name initials are often used by people in contexts where intellectual performance matters. Given this association, middle initials in people’s names indicate intellectual capacity and performance (Van Tilburg and Igou, 2014). In the current research, we examined whether middle initials are associated with a typical academic indicator of intellectual performance: authorship order of journal articles. In psychology, authorship early in the author list of an article should correspond with greater contribution to this intellectual endeavor compared to authorship appearing later in the author list. Given that middle initials indicate intellectual capacity and performance, we investigated whether there would be a positive relationship between middle initials in author names and early (vs. late) appearance of names in author lists of academic journal articles in psychology. In two studies, we examined the relationship between amount of authors’ middle initials and authorship order. Study 1 used a sample of 678 articles from social psychology journals published in the years 2006 and 2007. Study 2 used a sample of 696 articles from journals of multiple sub-disciplines in psychology published in the years from 1970 to 2013. Middle initials in author names were overrepresented early (vs. late) in author lists. We discuss implications of our findings for academic decisions on authorship orders, potential avenues of further investigation, and applications.
... On the other hand, there is nowadays an ever greater evidence about the fundamental role of chance, luck or, more in general, random factors, in determining successes or failures in our personal and professional lives. In particular, it has been shown that scientists have the same chance along their career of publishing their biggest hit [18]; that those with earlier surname initials are significantly more likely to receive tenure at top departments [19]; that the distributions of bibliometric indicators collected by a scholar might be the result of chance and noise related to multiplicative phenomena connected to a publish or perish inflationary mechanism [20]; that one's position in an alphabetically sorted list may be important in determining access to over-subscribed public services [21]; that middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance [22]; that people with easy-to-pronounce names are judged more positively than those with difficult-to-pronounce names [23]; that individuals with noble-sounding surnames are found to work more often as managers than as employees [24]; that females with masculine monikers are more successful in legal careers [25]; that roughly half of the variance in incomes across persons worldwide is explained only by their country of residence and by the income distribution within that country [26]; that the probability of becoming a CEO is strongly influenced by your name or by your month of birth [27,28,29]; that the innovative ideas are the results of a random walk in our brain network [30]; and that even the probability of developing a cancer, maybe cutting a brilliant career, is mainly due to simple bad luck [31,32]. Recent studies on lifetime reproductive success further corroborate these statements showing that, if trait variation may influence the fate of populations, luck often governs the lives of individuals [33,34]. ...
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The largely dominant meritocratic paradigm of highly competitive Western cultures is rooted on the belief that success is due mainly, if not exclusively, to personal qualities such as talent, intelligence, skills, efforts or risk taking. Sometimes, we are willing to admit that a certain degree of luck could also play a role in achieving significant material success. But, as a matter of fact, it is rather common to underestimate the importance of external forces in individual successful stories. It is very well known that intelligence or talent exhibit a Gaussian distribution among the population, whereas the distribution of wealth - considered a proxy of success - follows typically a power law (Pareto law). Such a discrepancy between a Normal distribution of inputs, with a typical scale, and the scale invariant distribution of outputs, suggests that some hidden ingredient is at work behind the scenes. In this paper, with the help of a very simple agent-based model, we suggest that such an ingredient is just randomness. In particular, we show that, if it is true that some degree of talent is necessary to be successful in life, almost never the most talented people reach the highest peaks of success, being overtaken by mediocre but sensibly luckier individuals. As to our knowledge, this counterintuitive result - although implicitly suggested between the lines in a vast literature - is quantified here for the first time. It sheds new light on the effectiveness of assessing merit on the basis of the reached level of success and underlines the risks of distributing excessive honors or resources to people who, at the end of the day, could have been simply luckier than others. With the help of this model, several policy hypotheses are also addressed and compared to show the most efficient strategies for public funding of research in order to improve meritocracy, diversity and innovation.
... shown that scientists have the same chance along their career of publishing their biggest hit [17]; that those with earlier surname initials are signi¯cantly more likely to receive tenure at top departments [18]; that the distributions of bibliometric indicators collected by a scholar might be the result of chance and noise related to multiplicative phenomena connected to a publish or perish in°ationary mechanism [19]; that one's position in an alphabetically sorted list may be important in determining access to over-subscribed public services [20]; that middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance [21]; that people with easy-topronounce names are judged more positively than those with di±cult-to-pronounce names [22]; that individuals with noble-sounding surnames are found to work more often as managers than as employees [23]; that females with masculine monikers are more successful in legal careers [24]; that roughly half of the variance in incomes across persons worldwide is explained only by their country of residence and by the income distribution within that country [25]; that the probability of becoming a CEO is strongly in°uenced by your name or by your month of birth [26][27][28]; that the innovative ideas are the results of a random walk in our brain network [29]; and that even the probability of developing a cancer, maybe cutting a brilliant career, is mainly due to simple bad luck [30,31]. Recent studies on lifetime reproductive success further corroborate these statements showing that, if trait variation may in°uence the fate of populations, luck often governs the lives of individuals [32,33]. ...
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This paper further investigates the Talent versus Luck (TvL) model described by [Pluchino et al. Talent versus luck: The role of randomness in success and failure, Adv. Complex Syst. 21 (2018) 1850014] which models the relationship between ‘talent’ and ‘luck’ on the impact of an individuals career. It is shown that the model is very sensitive to both random sampling and the choice of value for the input parameters. Running the model repeatedly with the same set of input parameters gives a range of output values of over 50% of the mean value. The sensitivity of the inputs of the model is analyzed using a variance-based approach based upon generating Sobol sequences of quasi-random numbers. When using the model to look at the talent associated with an individual who has the maximum capital over a model run it has been shown that the choice for the standard deviation of the talent distribution contributes to 67% of the model variability. When investigating the maximum amount of capital returned by the model the probability of a lucky event at any given epoch has the largest impact on the model, almost three times more than any other individual parameter. Consequently, during the analysis of the model results one must keep in mind the impact that only small changes in the input parameters can have on the model output.
... To lesser extremes, various religious traditions including the Christian, Hindu, and Islamic faiths often bestow individuals with names out of religious texts and warn against use of other undesirable names (Alford, 1988). Scientific research also supports the power of names in this respect, with names central to first impressions and evaluation of individuals in areas such as one's likeability (e.g., West & Shults, 1976), personality (e.g., Mehrabian & Piercy, 1993), potential for deviance (e.g., Kalist & Lee, 2009), and intellectual capacity and performance (e.g., van Tilburg & Igou, 2014). Such evaluation further shapes interactions and the future behavior of individuals. ...
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Psychiatric diagnosis is accepted and pervasive in mental health care and adjoining social systems throughout the world. The recognition of the inadequacy of diagnosis in advancing positive outcomes and healing is prompting the search for alternatives to diagnosis. While there is progress in seeking alternatives, we must be clear on the nature and depth of challenges associated with psychiatric labeling to achieve meaningful movement forward. To these ends, this article explores the intention, use, function, and impact of select naming practices from developmental, social, cultural, religious, and historical reference points. In studying the role of naming in our human development and making evident the parallel workings of naming systems from sociocultural history and that of diagnosis, the often obscured ways in which psychiatric labels are harmful becomes clearer. The authors offer a perspective drawn from a synthesis of their education, clinical work, lived experience of extreme mental states, and the challenges of growth and development while carrying psychiatric labels.
... Further, there is nowadays an ever greater evidence about the fundamental role of chance, luck or, more in general, random factors, in determining successes or failures in our personal and professional lives. In particular, it has been shown that scientists have the same chance along their career of publishing their biggest hit [11]; that those with earlier surname initials are significantly more likely to receive tenure at top departments [12]; that one's position in an alphabetically sorted list may be important in determining access to over-subscribed public services [13]; that middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance [14]; that people with easy-to-pronounce names are judged more positively than those with difficult-to-pronounce names [15]; that individuals with noble-sounding surnames are found to work more often as managers than as employees [16]; that females with masculine monikers are more successful in legal careers [17]; that roughly half of the variance in incomes across persons worldwide is explained only by their country of residence and by the income distribution within that country [18]; that the probability of becoming a CEO is strongly influenced by your name or by your month of birth [19,20,21]; and that even the probability of developing a cancer, maybe cutting a brilliant career, is mainly due to simple bad luck [22]. ...
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The largely dominant meritocratic paradigm of highly competitive Western cultures is rooted on the belief that success is due mainly, if not exclusively, to personal qualities such as talent, intelligence, skills, efforts or risk taking. Sometimes, we are willing to admit that a certain degree of luck could also play a role in achieving significant material success. But, as a matter of fact, it is rather common to underestimate the importance of external forces in individual successful stories. It is very well known that intelligence or talent exhibit a Gaussian distribution among the population, whereas the distribution of wealth - considered a proxy of success - follows typically a power law (Pareto law). Such a discrepancy between a Normal distribution of inputs, with a typical scale, and the scale invariant distribution of outputs, suggests that some hidden ingredient is at work behind the scenes. In this paper, with the help of a very simple agent-based model, we suggest that such an ingredient is just randomness. In particular, we show that, if it is true that some degree of talent is necessary to be successful in life, almost never the most talented people reach the highest peaks of success, being overtaken by mediocre but sensibly luckier individuals. As to our knowledge, this counterintuitive result - although implicitly suggested between the lines in a vast literature - is quantified here for the first time. It sheds new light on the effectiveness of assessing merit on the basis of the reached level of success and underlines the risks of distributing excessive honors or resources to people who, at the end of the day, could have been simply luckier than others. With the help of this model, several policy hypotheses are also addressed and compared to show the most efficient strategies for public funding of research in order to improve meritocracy, diversity and innovation.
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The present paper investigates how and when social status may serve as a cue for tacit coordination. In three experimental studies, we demonstrate that low status individuals are inclined to defer to the preferences of high status individuals, thereby facilitating coordination success. Furthermore, we investigate the boundary conditions of this effect. More specifically, we show that social status only facilitates coordination success when the people involved have asymmetric (or conflicting) preferences (Study 2), and when there is a clear social hierarchy (Study 3). In the general discussion, we relate these findings to earlier research on dominance hierarchies, social power, deference and perspective-taking and we provide suggestions for future research.
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Understanding communication processes is the goal of most communication researchers. Rarely are we satisfied merely ascertaining whether messages have an effect on some outcome of focus in a specific context. Instead, we seek to understand how such effects come to be. What kinds of causal sequences does exposure to a message initiate? What are the causal pathways through which a message exerts its effect? And what role does communication play in the transmission of the effects of other variables over time and space? Numerous communication models attempt to describe the mechanism through which messages or other communication-related variables transmit their effects or intervene between two other variables in a causal model. The communication literature is replete with tests of such models. Over the years, methods used to test such process models have grown in sophistication. An example includes the rise of structural equation modeling (SEM), which allows investigators to examine how well a process model that links some focal variable X to some outcome Y through one or more intervening pathways fits the observed data. Yet frequently, the analytical choices communication researchers make when testing intervening variables models are out of step with advances made in the statistical methods literature. My goal here is to update the field on some of these new advances. While at it, I challenge some conventional wisdom and nudge the field toward a more modern way of thinking about the analysis of intervening variable effects.
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DEPCORR is a computer program for comparing 2 dependent zero-order correlations that have one variable in common. DEPCORR uses SAS (SAS Institute Inc, 1990) to compute H. Hotelling's t (1940), E. J. Williams' t (1959), I. Olkin's z (1967), and X. L. Meng's et al.'s z (1992). In addition, DEPCORR also computes O. J. Dunn and V . A. Clark's z test and J. H. Steiger's modification of Dunn and Clark's z. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The hypothesis is tested that mere ownership of an object is a sufficient condition to enhance its likelihood to become one of the most attractive items of the entire set of similar objects. Evidence is presented that isolated visual letter stimuli belonging to one's own name are more often ranked among the six most preferred letters of the entire alphabet than identical not-own name letters. Across 12 different European languages, an (own) name letter effect was found for (initial and/or not-initial) letters belonging to own first and/or family name. The fundamental theoretical relevance of the effect is outlined as well as its heuristic value for research on individual versus collective ownership and on affective asymmetry. A cross-lingual analysis of the six least preferred letters-while also confirming the mere ownership hypothesis-calls for a critical reformulation of Zajonc's mere exposure theory.
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‘Mere belongingness to self’ is tested as a sufficient condition for the enhancement of the attractiveness of visual letter stimuli. Experimental evidence is presented that, independent of visual, acoustical, aesthetic, semantic and frequency characteristics, letters belonging to own first and/or family name are preferred above not-own name letters. The effect is obtained in the absence of awareness of the Gestalt of any name, thus challenging current understanding of fundamental affective processes.
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Japanese studies have repeatedly failed to obtain any explicit tendency to enhance self-esteem. In two studies, the authors attempted an implicit assessment of positive feelings attached to Japanese selves and found evidence for such feelings. Study 1 examined preference for Japanese alphabetical letters and found that letters included in one's own name were significantly better liked than the remaining ones. Further, an especially strong preference was expressed by male respondents for the first letters of their family names, and by female respondents for the first letters of their first names. Study 2 assessed preference for numerics and showed that the numbers corresponding to both the month and the day of one's birthday were significantly better liked than the remaining numbers. Implications are discussed for theories of Japanese selves.
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One's attitude about oneself, and the treatment one receives from others, might be affected, in some small but measurable way, by stigmatic or salutary labeling due to one's name. If names affect attitudes and attitudes affect longevity, then individuals with "positive" initials (e.g., A.C.E., V.I.P.) might live longer than those with "negative" initials (e.g., P.I.G., D.I.E.). Using California death certificates, 1969-1995, we isolated 2287 male decedents with "negative" initials and 1200 with "positive" initials. Males with positive initials live 4.48 years longer (p<0.0001), whereas males with negative initials die 2.80 years younger (p<0.0001) than matched controls. The longevity effects are smaller for females, with an increase of 3.36 years for the positive group (p<0.0001) and no decrease for the negative. Positive initials are associated with shifts away from causes of death with obvious psychological components (such as suicides and accidents), whereas negative initials are associated with shifts toward these causes. However, nearly all disease categories display an increase in longevity for the positive group and a decrease for the negative group. These findings cannot be explained by the effects of death cohort artifacts, gender, race, year of death, socioeconomic status, or parental neglect.
Article
Parker and Van Praag (2009) showed, based on theory, that the group status of the profession ‘entrepreneurship’ shapes people’s occupational preferences and thus their choice behavior. The current study focuses on the determinants and consequences of the group status of a profession, entrepreneurship in particular. If the group status of entrepreneurship is related to individual choice behavior, it is policy relevant to better understand this relationship and the determinants of the status of the entrepreneur. For reasons outlined in the introduction, this study focuses on (800) students in the Netherlands. We find that the status of occupations is mostly determined by the required level of education, the income level to be expected and respect. Furthermore, our results imply that entrepreneurship is associated with hard work, high incomes, but little power and education. Moreover, we find evidence that individual characteristics, such as entrepreneurship experience, vary systematically with the perceived status of occupations, thereby contributing ammunition to a fundamental discussion in the literature. Finally, we find a strong association between the perceived status of the entrepreneur and the estimated likelihood and willingness to become an entrepreneur.
Monte Carlo method for assessing mediation: An interactive tool for creating confidence intervals for indirect effects
  • J P Selig
Selig, J. P., & Preacher, K. J. (2008, June). Monte Carlo method for assessing mediation: An interactive tool for creating confidence intervals for indirect effects [computer software]. Available: http://quantpsy.org/ Simonsohn, U. (2011). Spurious? Name similarity effects (implicit egotism) in marriage, job, and moving decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101, 1-12.
  • Snijders