Time to change your name to Smith
Many celebrities use “stage names,” for fear that their given names will not be appealing. New research suggests that regular people might want to consider doing this, too. In several experiments, people rated easier-to-pronounce names as more likable and evaluated political candidates more favorably if they had more pronounceable names, even in the case of unusual ethnic names. Also, an analysis of names sampled from major law firms revealed that lawyers with more pronounceable names had more senior positions, even when analyzing just the Anglo-American names.
Laham, S. et al., “The Name-Pronunciation Effect: Why People Like Mr. Smith More Than Mr. Colquhoun,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).
My angelic youth
We generally think of childhood as a time of innocence, and, according to new research, just thinking about childhood actually makes us more angelic. After people wrote essays about childhood memories--whether good or bad--they reported feeling more innocent and morally pure, had more thoughts related to moral purity, were more interested in receiving a white lamb instead of a black bear, judged another’s unethical behavior more harshly, and were much more willing to be helpful or donate to charity. Thinking about high school memories did not have the same effect.
Gino, F. Desai, S., “Memory Lane and Morality: How Childhood Memories Promote Prosocial Behavior,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (forthcoming).
Why Tea Partiers are smiling
Surveys have shown that conservatives tend to be more satisfied with their lives--including their relationships, jobs, finances, health, and neighborhoods--than liberals, controlling for age, gender, income, and education. Conservatives also report better mental health. Some have argued that this happiness advantage is due to a greater willingness to accept inequality. A new study questions this view. Analyzing several large surveys, the authors find that conservatives’ happiness advantage is explained by greater belief in personal control and responsibility, more optimism and self-worth, and stronger religious and moral views. Meanwhile, liberals have become less happy over the past several decades, ostensibly because of their more secular beliefs and lifestyles.
Schlenker, B. et al., “Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals, But Why? Political Ideology, Personality, and Life Satisfaction,” Journal of Research in Personality (forthcoming).
Baseball: too long?
If every World Series were like the 2004 Series (when the Red Sox won for the first time since 1918), attracting a national TV audience wouldn’t be a problem. However, there’s been a downward trend for decades in the fraction of households watching the World Series. In a new study, a pair of economists comes to a simple conclusion: The games have become too long. Forty years ago, a typical game lasted about two and a half hours; more recently, games have averaged almost four hours. While the availability of alternative TV programming has contributed somewhat to the erosion of viewership, another factor has been increasing affluence. People value their time more now, and it’s hard to commit to watching a game for four hours. For example, when the fifth game of the 2008 Series was suspended in the sixth inning and then resumed two days later--with the shortened broadcast duration--TV ratings jumped 28 percent.
Burger, J. Walters, S., “Is America’s National Pastime Too Time Consuming?” Economics Letters (forthcoming).
The stress of prejudice
Some people are comfortable dealing with people of different races; some people aren’t. New research measures the effects of these differences. In an experiment, white people who were worried about appearing prejudiced became increasingly stressed--as exhibited by their behavior and hormone levels--during a videotaped interaction with a black person. No such reaction occurred when interacting with another white person or for whites who weren’t worried about appearing prejudiced. Likewise, among college freshmen who recorded their social interactions over the course of the year, interracial interaction was associated with an altered stress-hormone profile, especially for freshmen worried about appearing prejudiced.
Trawalter, S. et al., “Concerns about Appearing Prejudiced Get under the Skin: Stress Responses to Interracial Contact in the Moment and across Time,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (forthcoming).
Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE.Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. He can be reached at kevin.lewis.ideas@gmail.com.