columnBehavioral psychologist Chantal van der Leest examines our behavior in the workplace: who or what determines our daily decisions? Today: the influence of our name
Yesterday I received an email from Mrs. Centen containing the invoice for my new refrigerator. I have to chuckle at that. That exactly one cent works in the financial department. Of course Ms. Centen will give very different reasons why she works there, we don’t let something as simple as our name influence our choice of profession, right?
The fact that I like to read (and write) has nothing to do with my last name and also singing (chanter in French) I do it because I like it. I think. Yet the ancient Romans already saw a connection between your name and your profession. Nomen est omen – your name is an omen – they thought. Today we call it an aptonym and the funniest examples compete at Radio 538 for the Hennie-de-Haan cup. Ferry Kok who works as a cook on a ferry, or carpenter Marco Spijkerman who is married to Lianne den Hamer. Very funny.
But is there really a connection between those names and the choices people make in their lives? American psychologist and researcher Brett Pelham thought so. In the early 2000s, he conducted research into what he calls implicit egotism: people have an unconscious preference for things that remind them of themselves, such as the letters in our name.
Dentists
He started counting. In America the name Dennis was as popular as the names Walter and Jerry, yet he counted almost twice as many dentists. dentist) called Dennis. In the world of geology you often bumped into Geoffreys and Georges. And many more Louises moved to Louisiana and Florences to Florida than vice versa. Also your hometown and even the love of your life would match more often than you would expect.
Then why don’t I live in Chaam with Charles van der Lee? Because there are so many other factors that come into play when making choices, other than letters alone. And whether Pelham’s findings are really correct or just fluke? Other researchers struggled to make the same discoveries. Today, psychologists assume that the name-letter effect does exist, but not with important choices, such as your profession or where you live. So yes, maybe I want a cappuccino with a ‘c’ and no tea, but still choose my own Peter and psychology.
Want to know more about psychology and work? Read Chantal’s books Why Perfectionists Are Rarely Happy, 13 Tips Against Perfectionism (2021) and Our Fallible Thinking at Work (2018).
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