This was a very interesting article, and I'm not sure whether I believe all of it or not.
The main point the article tried to make was that, in most studies, people's actions, choices, grades, places of employment, etc. were influenced by their initials. A few examples: In a survey of 14,000, peple whose names started with a C or D were more likely to get these grades than those with initials A or B. The same went for law school students: students with initials A or B went to better schools than those initialed C or D. My question is, what about the people with initials after A, B, C, or D? The study didn't talk about these at all!
Another study showed that people were more likely to pick a prize that has one of their initials in it's label (example: Prize F) whether it was a grand prize or consolation prize. The same went for employment. People were slightly more inclined to work for a company who shared one or more of their initials. The interesting point with this theory (called implicit egotism) was that companies were slightly more inclined to HIRE workers with similar initials!
So, is it coincidence or evidence?
Personally, I often pick at random when choosing things that include letters. BUT, after reading this week's chapter, I wonder how random my choices really are. Is my subconcious fooling me, and really choosing for me?
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Wow this is definitely something that I have never thought about before.. And I'm pretty sure that i've never picked anything with any of my initials in it! But then again my initials aren't very cool. But anyways it is really interesting that you can possibly get hired just because you have a certain initial! This was really interesting.. I guess you really do learn something new everyday.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to know about the whole grades thing, for my case it holds true because my initials are C and D and I tend to have an A average in my classes. I'm not sure about the study of people being hired by employers because of initials is correct either. I think that it's mostly just a coinsidence and doen't have much to your subconscious thinking.
ReplyDeleteI find this article interesting and potentially true. I am not a sports fan by any means but when I randomly decided to be a fan of an NFL football team I picked the New York Jets because my initials spell JET. Whether this was a subconscious or conscious decision I don't know. I am not sure that the points on grades and employment are correct, but it definitely is an interesting theory.
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