Whether people find you 鈥渉ot or not鈥� could depend on the sound of your name, suggests a new study.
Linguist Amy Perfors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, US, placed photos with fake names on a website called 鈥淗ot or Not鈥�, which allows viewers to rank strangers鈥� photos for attractiveness.
She found that men labelled with names including 鈥渇ront vowels,鈥� such as the 鈥渁aa鈥� sound in Matt were rated as more attractive by website viewers than photos labelled with 鈥渂ack vowel鈥� names, such as the 鈥渁w鈥� sound in Paul. The opposite was true for women鈥檚 names.
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While most linguists agree that there is no inherent relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning, there is some evidence to the contrary, says Perfors. Front vowels, those produced in the front of the mouth, are often perceived as smaller than back vowels, those produced in the back of the mouth.
It may seem counterintuitive that men named with the smaller-sounding front vowel are rated as more attractive. But other studies have shown that men with slightly feminine features are considered more desirable, says Perfors. 鈥淢aybe women are subconsciously looking for more sensitive or gentle men,鈥� she says.
Persistent association
But having too feminine a name could backfire for men 鈥� as those labelled with women鈥檚 names were rated least attractive. However, having a man鈥檚 name 鈥� such as Bob 鈥� had no negative effect on a woman鈥檚 attractiveness to website viewers.
鈥淣o one knows why people make these associations with front and back vowel sounds,鈥� says Lera Boroditsky, a psychologist at Stanford. It may be that some words with these sounds have created a persistent association, she says.
鈥淭his is a very clever example of how to use the tremendous resources of the web,鈥� adds Boroditsky.
And while the effects were robust, an attractive name cannot completely compensate for a face that is more frog than prince. 鈥淎n attractive person with a bad vowel name is still more attractive than an unattractive person with a good vowel name,鈥� says Perfors.
The study results were presented at the Cognitive Science Society meeting in Chicago, US on 7 August.