長得不好看？可能是因為你的名字沒取好

Researchers led by Dr Ruth Mayo and PhD candidate Yonat Zwebner at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem examined whether a person's appearance can be influenced by their given name.

耶路撒冷希伯來大學的博士Ruth Mayo和博士候選人Yonat Zwebner帶領研究人員研究了一個人的外表是否會受到名字的影響。

To do this, they recruited independent observers and showed them color headshot photographs of complete strangers. Then they presented a list of names to the observers and asked them to choose the stranger's real name based on his or her facial appearance.

為此，他們招募了獨立觀察員，并向觀察員們展示完全陌生的彩色人物頭像照片。觀察員被要求根據照片中人物的樣貌，從名單中選擇出陌生人的真實名字。

Beat the odds of correctly guessing a person's name

In a series of studies (now reported in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), the observers repeatedly beat the odds of correctly identifying a person's name based on their facial appearance alone.

在《人格與社會心理學》雜志所刊載的一系列研究中，觀察員只依據面部表現來識別名字的正確率多次超過理論上的概率值。

For example, upon looking at the face and considering four possible names — Jacob, Dan, Josef or Nathaniel — observers correctly chose "Dan" 38 percent of the time, significantly above the 25 percent chance level of a random guess.

例如，觀察員觀察面部，并在四個可能的名字(Jacob、Dan、Josef、Nathaniel)中做出選擇。觀察員在38%的情況下能夠選出正確答案Dan，明顯高于隨機猜測的25%的概率。

This effect held true even when the researchers controlled for age and ethnicity.

即使研究員控制了年齡和民族這兩個因素，上述結果依然成立。

"Our research demonstrates that indeed people do look like their name," said Dr Ruth Mayo, senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Furthermore, we suggest this happens because of a process of self-fulfilling prophecy, as we become what other people expect us to become."

希伯來大學的高級講師Ruth Mayo博士稱，“我們的研究表明，人們確實看起來像自己的名字。此外，我們認為其原因在于自我應驗預言，因為我們會成為他人期待我們成為的人。”

Name stereotypes

Supporting the notion of a self-fulfilling prophecy, the researchers found that observers beat the odds of correctly guessing a person's name even when they were only allowed to see their hairstyle. This suggests that people may choose the hairstyle that fits a stereotype associated with their name.

研究人員的發(fā)現支持自我應驗預言概念。當觀察員只能通過發(fā)型猜測人名時，猜出人名的實際正確率依然高于理論上的概率值。這表明人們可能會選擇符合其名字刻板印象的發(fā)型。

The researchers confirmed that observers in a second country and culture were also able to beat the odds. However while observers were good at matching faces to names in their own culture, they were not good at doing so in a foreign culture. This supports the idea that name stereotypes are important when matching faces with names.

研究人員證實，來自另一個國家和文化的觀察員猜出人名的實際正確率也能高于理論概率值。雖然觀察員們善于將面孔與自己文化中的名字正確匹配，但他們并不善于在異國文化中這樣做。這證明了名字的刻板印象在面孔與名字配對時很重要。

The researchers also found that observers are less good at guessing the given name of people who use a nickname exclusively. This indicates that a person's appearance is affected by their name only if they use it, and not if it simply appears on a birth certificate.

研究人員還發(fā)現，觀察員不太能猜對那些只使用昵稱的人的真實名字。這表明一個人的外表只有在他使用真實名字時才受其影響;如果他的真實名字只是出現在出生證明上(生活中并不使用)，那么他的外表并不會被名字所影響。

In one study, the researchers completely removed the human factor from the matching process.

在一項研究中，研究人員完全剔除了人為因素對配對過程造成的影響。

Using a computerized paradigm, they found that computers were able to beat the odds when asked to choose the correct name for 94,000 different faces. This further supports the idea that our faces contain relevant information related to our names.

研究人員使用計算機模型進行實驗，發(fā)現計算機從94000張不同面孔中選出正確名字的實際幾率高于理論概率值。這進一步支持了長相包含與名字相關的信息這一看法。

"We are familiar with similar processes from other stereotypes like race and gender, where many times the stereotypical expectations of others affect who we become. We hypothesize that there are similar stereotypes about names, including how someone with a specific name looks, and these expectations really do affect our facial appearance," said Dr Mayo from the Hebrew University.

Mayo博士表示：“我們對種族、性別等刻板印象的形成過程比較熟悉。很多時候，別人的刻板期待會影響我們成為怎樣的人。我們假設名字也存在著類似的刻板印象，其中包括：具有特定某個名字的人相貌如何、這些期望如何真實地影響我們的面部表現。“

Social structuring

According to the researchers, the possibility that our name can influence our look, even to a small extent, suggests the important role of social structuring in the complex interaction between the self and society.

根據研究人員的說法，我們的名字會影響我們的外表(即使是在較小的程度上)，說明了社會建構在自我與社會的復雜互動中發(fā)揮重要作用。

The research suggests that we are subject to social structuring from the minute we are born, not only by our gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, but also by the simple choice that others make in giving us our name.

研究表明，從我們出生的那一刻起，我們就不斷地受到社會建構的影響，不僅僅是受性別、民族和社會經濟地位的影響，還受別人為我們取名時做出的簡單選擇的影響。

Future research could examine the precise nature of the mechanism leading to the emergence of this face-name matching effect, for example how a person's name matches his or her face at different stages of life.

未來的研究可能關注于導致面孔與名字之間的產生匹配效應的機制的確切屬性，例如：一個人的名字如何在生命的不同階段與面孔相匹配。

Another question worth exploring is why some people have a very high face-name match while others have a low match.

另一個問題值得探討得問題是：為什么有些人的面孔和名字匹配率非常高，而另一些人的匹配率則很低。