WEBVTT - Does Your Name Determine Your Future?

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<v Speaker 1>I'm at, I'm no, I'm Ben, and we are stuff

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<v Speaker 1>you get your podcasts. Welcome to brain Stuff from How

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, this is Christian Seger. Everyone

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<v Speaker 1>has a name. I just gave you mine. That's extraordinary, though,

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<v Speaker 1>when you think about it, because it's one of the

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<v Speaker 1>very few social things that all human beings have in common.

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<v Speaker 1>No matter who you are, where you live, or what

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<v Speaker 1>you do with your life, you and everyone else has

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<v Speaker 1>a name. You might be a Kevin, a Felicia, a Mohammed,

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<v Speaker 1>a Holly, and so on. It's part of your identity

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<v Speaker 1>and helped separate you from the teeming mass of humanity.

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<v Speaker 1>But how much does your name affect you? Could it

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<v Speaker 1>determine your future? Well, it doesn't determine your life exactly.

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<v Speaker 1>Economists Steve Levitt and Roland Friar studied decades worth of

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<v Speaker 1>children's names, only to find that what your parents name

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<v Speaker 1>you doesn't really impact your economic future. So you're not

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<v Speaker 1>doomed to poverty just because your name is Earnest or something.

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<v Speaker 1>But your name will certainly affect your future. A study

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<v Speaker 1>called are You Ready? Are Emily and Greg more employable

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<v Speaker 1>than Lakisha and Jamal unearthed at least one disturbing trend

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<v Speaker 1>about names. Job applicants with equal qualifications or even otherwise

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<v Speaker 1>identical resumes are about fifty more likely to get a

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<v Speaker 1>callback if they have a white sounding name. This indicates

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<v Speaker 1>that despite numerous laws, discrimination still thrives in the workplace.

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<v Speaker 1>Your name doesn't just tell people about you. It tells

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<v Speaker 1>people about your parents and gives them away to place

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<v Speaker 1>you in their vision of society. This isn't about whether

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<v Speaker 1>their vision is correct. That's prejudice, but it does affect

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<v Speaker 1>how people with these expectations in mindsets will address and

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<v Speaker 1>interact with you. And that's not all. Your name may

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<v Speaker 1>also play a role in your career. This theory is

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<v Speaker 1>called nominative determinism, the idea that your name may affect

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<v Speaker 1>the way you interact with the world, including anything from

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<v Speaker 1>donations to your choice of career. For example, is someone

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<v Speaker 1>named Helen Painter more likely to be an artist? Or

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<v Speaker 1>is someone named Jimmy Hogg more likely to work with pigs.

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<v Speaker 1>Matthew Meirenberg and John Jones think so in their study

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<v Speaker 1>and here we go with another name, Why Susie sells

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<v Speaker 1>Seashells by the Sea Shore Implicit Egotism and Major Life

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<v Speaker 1>Decisions classic academic title. These researchers found that people are

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<v Speaker 1>more likely to choose careers whose labels resemble their own names. So,

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<v Speaker 1>to use one of their examples, people named Dennis or

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<v Speaker 1>Denise are overrepresented among can you guess it Yeah? Dentists.

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<v Speaker 1>Dentists Dennis, Denise. Mehrenberg and Jones believe this happens because

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<v Speaker 1>people prefer things that they connect with themselves, including their

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<v Speaker 1>own names. Other scientists, like University of Pennsylvania's Uri Simonson,

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<v Speaker 1>are skeptical about this whole idea. Are we drawing tenuous

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<v Speaker 1>conclusions where none exist just to support a neat idea? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>for the record, Simonson does suppose that nominative determinism might

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<v Speaker 1>explain why people named Rachel might be more likely to

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<v Speaker 1>donate in the wake of Hurricane Rhea. Because, as weird

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<v Speaker 1>as this might sound, that similarity just starting with the

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<v Speaker 1>letter are triggered some sense of identification. We haven't even

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<v Speaker 1>talked about name changes or the weird name changes people

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<v Speaker 1>have tried in court. I'm looking at you, Romantico, Sir

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<v Speaker 1>Tasty Maximilian, Yeah, that is his real name. We haven't

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<v Speaker 1>talked about all the multi generational popularity cycle they experience either, or,

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<v Speaker 1>as we like to call it, the rise and fall

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<v Speaker 1>of the Brittney's and Ashley's. Check out the brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands

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<v Speaker 1>of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com