Pimp yourself. With a middle name initial.

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

Abstract

Middle name initials often appear in formal contexts, especially when people refer to intellectual achievements. On the basis of 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 and 4). Moreover, the middle initials effect was specific to intellectual performance (Studies 3 and 6), and it was mediated by perceived status (Studies 5–7). Besides supporting our hypotheses, the results of these studies yield important implication for everyday life. 

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Middle names make you look smarter

A new study by researchers at the Universities of Southampton and Limerick suggest that people benefit from displaying their middle name initials in situations where intellectual performance matters.

The study, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, looked at the perceptions people form about others when middle initials were present or not.

The researchers, including Dr Wijnand A. P. Van Tilburg, from the University of Southampton and Dr. Eric R. Igou, of the University of Limerick, conducted a series of studies with more than 500 participants.

One of the studies included an evaluation of an essay. When the author's name, David Clark, was given without initials, it was evaluated less positively than the same essay written by an author named David F. P. R. Clark. Moreover, results also showed that the middle initials effect only occurred in domains where intellectual performance matters (e.g. intellectual quizzes) but not where intellectual performances is secondary (e.g. team sports).

Dr Van Tilburg explains: "At the start of this research project we discussed various findings suggesting that names have a tremendous impact of person perception and on life in general. We wanted to examine the impact of middle names, and in particular the impact of middle initials, on perceptions that people form about others with versus without middle initials in their names.

"Middle initials are often displayed in contexts in which intellectual achievements matter. We found that the display of middle initials would increase perception of intellectual capacities and performance. Importantly, however, these person perceptions are limited to contexts where intellectual achievements are central."

Additionally the studies found that, the middle initials effect on inferences about intellectual performance was based on the perception of status. For example, a person with no middle initial was seen as lesser in status than one with middle initials, and this difference accounted largely for the inferences about intellectual performance.

Dr Igou, of the University of Limerick, adds: "This is the first detailed study to establish a link between middle name initials and perceptions of status and intellectual capacities and performance. We believe that these findings have implications for the psychology of person perception and in particular for inferences about people's status and intellect."

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Here is first-hand experience.

William M. Briggs Sez: Keep That Impressive Middle Initial

You can take it from William M. Briggs, and also from the Today show: sporting a middle initial is a mark of sophistication, intelligence, and rugged manliness—or womanliness, as the case may be.

So say Wijnand A. P. van Tilburg and Eric R. Igou in their peer-reviewed “The impact of middle names: Middle name initials enhance evaluations of intellectual performance” in the European Journal of Social Psychology.

Face it. You’re awfully impressed with me, mainly because I display, proudly and prominently, that central “M.” I always knew its importance, but it’s nice to have research to back it up. Class-A research, too, because as the authors themselves humbly admit, “the results of these studies yield important implication for everyday life.” And who isn’t interested in everyday life?

You’ll agree that we must “conceptually distinguish perceived status from perceived intellectual performance.” So not one, but two—indeed, later we learn that the number is seven—full experiments are needed. Perceived status “reflects a general evaluation of respect and admiration by others” and intellectual performance “relates to more specific domains, such as writing ability or academic knowledge in particular.” Or the acme: writing blog posts about academic knowledge.

Experiment 1: 64 women and 21 men, all students (who else?) read an extract “written” by (a) David Clark, (b) David F. Clark, (c) David F.P. Clark, or (d) David F.P.R. Clark. “The author’s name was subtly displayed above the text.” Students had to rate the well-writtenedness (yes, well-writtenedness) of the piece on a scale of 1 to 7.

Lo. A wee p-value “revealed significant differences between the middle initials conditions”. Why, the authors even discovered a cubic trend in the increase in well-writtenedness between no and three middle initials. Answer to the question in your head: It isn’t over-fitting if it passes peer review. In the authors own words,

This cubic trend represents an imperfection that can be specifically attributed to the condition with two middle initials, which did not differ significantly from the condition with no middle initials. Following this analysis, we conclude that the middle initials effect is overall reliable but that its robustness needs to be investigated further. In addition, it appears that the middle initials effect does not simply increase in a linear fashion as a function of the amount of middle initials, and it seems that one middle initial is sufficient to produce the middle initials effect.

You can’t say fairer than that, so it’s on to Experiment 6, which saw our authors recruit visitors to their website (again, mostly women) and asked to pick a none- through three-initialed person to join an imaginary Quiz Team and another to join an imaginary Sports Group. The participants were asked to rate the names, with and without initials, according to “high perceived status, great intellectual capacity, and great athletic capacity.”

Here’s where it got tricky. For each participant, the authors “computed the summed amount of initials of the selected members for both the intellectual quiz and sports competition teams.” Just like you, dear reader, sum the initials of your friends as a measure of personal status.

As the authors theorized, “participants chose members with more initials to perform in their intellectual quiz team…compared with their sports competition team”. But the p-value just squeaked by at 0.04. Whew! For a moment, I was worried there wasn’t enough evidence.

Study weaknesses? Turns out “the selection of our names is typically beyond our personal control”. Also, “the decision of parents of whether or not to include middle names may have consequences for the individual.” Mom and dad (are we still allowed to say that?) pick out those initials!

What about the sad souls who innately recognize the importance of initials, but screw it up? More research is clearly needed. Calling myself “W. Matthew Briggs” doesn’t, I think, bring the same caché, but there are no wee p-values to support this. Somebody get me a grant. It’s Science!

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The jury is still undecided about putting a period after the middle name initial. Some prefer the absence of a period(.)