A Baker by name Baker. Do the names on the choice of profession?
Proctologist Dr. Batts (eng. “buttocks”) or pastry chef Baker (“Baker”) is pure coincidence or yet the universe is somehow pushing people to choose a profession related to their last name?
Jokes aside, scientists have long paid attention to this phenomenon and have even invented a name for it: nominative determinism.
Cases of strange coincidences between the name of the man and his profession are explored for quite some time. In a serious scientific magazine New Scientist this phenomenon even dedicated a permanent column.
Some people think it’s a funny coincidence, while the other lead is incontrovertible proof that if your last name is Baker, then everything is predetermined.
Nominative determinism — part of a more complex concept of “implicit egotism” (an exaggerated sense of self-worth), which States that we attract things that remind us about ourselves.
Someone pulls to tie the fate of a person born on the same day, and someone- to move to the city, whose name is consonant with his name or surname.
But are there any objective proof that your name really can affect a career choice?
Brett Pelham, a psychology Professor from Montgomery College in Maryland (USA), absolutely convinced of this.
“The name defines many aspects of your life,” says Professor Pelham, who explores the phenomenon of implicit egotism for decades. He is confident that nominative determinism is not just a coincidence.
In 2002 Pelham and his colleagues Matthew Mirenberg and John Jones published in the journal “Personality and social psychology” the results of the research on implicit egotism.
Scientists decided to test the hypothesis that the sound of a person’s name can affect major life decisions, such as choosing a career.
Pelham and his colleagues found that people called Dennis or Denise (Dennis, Denise sound like in English. dentist, “dentist”) is more likely to become dentists than the owners of other names.
They also noticed that the male names George or Geoffrey (George, Geoffrey sound similar to geology, “Geology”) “disproportionately often among the representatives of geological industry.”
Podiatrist Foot and pediatrician Child
In a family of doctors from UK by the name of Limb (eng. “a limb”) have long been thinking, could their names influence career choice.
“I am often asked whether it affected the decision to become an orthopedic surgeon,” admits Dr. David Limb, husband of Katherine Limb, also a doctor.
When the sons, Richard and Christopher, went to medical school and became the object of jokes on the subject, the family decided to deal with this issue.
For several weeks they studied the registry of the General medical Council in the UK and in the end promulgated the “not quite serious” report with examples of amazing coincidences of the names of the doctors with the branch of medicine in which they specialize, or with medicine in General.
In the article that it is impossible to read without laughing, the whole group are listed eloquent medical names.