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In light of two recent studies, expecting parents might consider doing a little social engineering when naming their children. New evidence suggests if you're trying to convey intelligence the more middle initials in your name, the smarter people will assume you to be.
Also, if you want to be trusted more, use a first name that everyone can pronounce. That effect seems to be in line with another study (not peer-reviewed) indicating short first names correlate with higher earnings.
Perhaps one should combine the two and just use initials for all but the surname, like J.P. Morgan?
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More Middle Initials Make You Seem Smarter
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 07 2014, @04:01PM
So who's laughing at Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo now?
Seriously, though, is there no depth to idiocy and garbage on the Internet? Richard Feynman didn't use initials. John von Neumann had a fairly normal Germanic name. Alonzo Church? John McCarthy? Is there any link at all?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ezekielsays on Wednesday May 07 2014, @04:27PM
The thing you're missing out on is that initials influence whether people assume you are intelligent, not whether you actually are. Assumptions are apparently a lot more malleable than your actual intelligence level.
Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
(Score: 2) by SuddenOutbreak on Wednesday May 07 2014, @05:13PM
The article also indicated that the presence of "von/van" or certain other modifiers could also influence perceptions.