Name letter matching and implicit egotism: Friends as self-extensions

@article{Brownlow2007NameLM,
  title={Name letter matching and implicit egotism: Friends as self-extensions},
  author={Sheila Brownlow and Mary F. Attea and Jill A. Makransky and Alexander O. Lopez},
  journal={Social Behavior and Personality},
  year={2007},
  volume={35},
  pages={525-536}
}
Favorable evaluations of letters appearing in peoples' names were examined and found to vary according to a focus on the self versus others. Students described their personal preferences after thinking about either positive or negative qualities of themselves or a friend. Matches of consonant letters in preferences with consonants in first and last names was higher when the self-concept was challenged by an induced focus on negative personal traits, as well as when people thought about… 
View via Publisher
2 Citations
Background Citations
1

2 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Birds of a Feather Sit Together: Physical Similarity Predicts Seating Choice
TLDR
The overall tendency for people to sit beside physically similar others remained significant when controlling for sex and race, suggesting people aggregate on physical dimensions other than broad social categories.
The Perceived Attractiveness of Chinese Products by German Consumers—A Sociopsychological Approach
ABSTRACT The presence of Chinese companies in international markets has increased, and one of their main challenges is to overcome the negative image that Chinese products have in many countries.…

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 20 REFERENCES
Name letter preferences are not merely mere exposure: Implicit egotism as self-regulation.
People prefer the letters in their own names to letters that are not in their own names. Furthermore, people prefer the numbers in their own birthdays to numbers not in their own birthdays. In this…
How do I love thee? Let me count the Js: implicit egotism and interpersonal attraction.
TLDR
It is shown that people are disproportionately likely to marry others whose first or last names resemble their own, and that participants were more attracted to people whose arbitrary experimental code numbers resembled their own birthday numbers.
Implicit Self-Esteem in Japan: Name Letters and Birthday Numbers
Japanese studies have repeatedly failed to obtain any explicit tendency to enhance self-esteem. In two studies, the authors attempted an implicit assessment of positive feelings attached to Japanese…
Affective consequences of mere ownership: The name letter effect in twelve European languages
The hypothesis is tested that mere ownership of an object is a sufficient condition to enhance its likelihood to become one of the most attractive items of the entire set of similar objects. Evidence…
What's in a name: implicit self-esteem and the automatic self.
TLDR
Findings support the notion that implicit self-esteem phenomena are driven by self-evaluations that are activated automatically and without conscious self-reflection.
Testing the Generality of the Name Letter Effect: Name Initials and Everyday Attitudes
TLDR
Investigation of whether people possess favorable attitudes toward basic attitude objects beginning with name initials found no object preference as a function of matching name initials, but a clear preference for brand names starting with one’s name initials emerged.
Assessing the validity of implicit egotism: a reply to Gallucci (2003).
TLDR
In support of implicit egotism, Pelham et al presented evidence from 10 archival studies showing that people gravitate toward careers and places of residence that resemble their names or birthday numbers, including exhaustive studies of common surnames and US city names and common surname and street names.
Two Roads to Positive Regard: Implicit and Explicit Self-Evaluation and Culture
Abstract Three studies examined the implicit (nonconscious) and explicit (conscious) self-concepts of people who varied in their degree of exposure to individualistic cultures. Studies 1 and 2…
Gender moderates the relation between implicit and explicit self-esteem
Self-Enhancement Tendencies Among People With High Explicit Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Implicit Self-Esteem
Consistent with recent research on initials-preferences, we assumed that people's preferences for their initials reflect an implicit form of self-esteem that buffers them against challenges to their…
...
1
2
...