New study finds people’s faces evolve to match their names

 

Example trials in Study 2. (A) is an example of the target set for adults (left). (B) is an example of the target set for children (right). This is a free translation into English. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2405334121

A new study has found that a person’s face tends to evolve based on their name. The researchers set out to determine whether parents choose a name for their baby based on what seems to fit their baby’s appearance, or whether the process is the other way around: Over the years, a person’s facial appearance changes to match the name their parents gave them.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesThe research team was led by Dr. Yonat Zwebner, Dr. Moses Miller and Professor Jacob Goldenberg of Reichman University’s Arison School of Business, and Noa Grobgeld and Professor Ruth Mayo of the Hebrew University.

In the study, children and adults aged 9 to 10 were asked to match faces to names. The results revealed that both children and adults correctly matched adult faces to their corresponding names, which was significantly above chance levels. However, when it came to children’s faces and names, participants were unable to make accurate associations.

In another part of the study, a machine learning system was fed a large database of images of human faces. The computer recognized that representations of the faces of adults with the same name were significantly more similar to each other than representations of the faces of adults with different names. Conversely, no significant similarities were found between children with the same name and children with different names.

The researchers concluded that the similarity between a person’s face and their name is the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The appearance of the face changes over a long period of time to match the social stereotypes associated with the name. Such stereotypes can form in many ways, for example because the name is linked to a famous person or because of the connotations of a biblical name.

Dr. Yonat Zwebner, from Reichman University’s Arison School of Business, said: “Our research highlights the broader importance of this surprising effect: the profound impact of social expectations. We have demonstrated that social constructs, or structurations, do exist, something that until now has been nearly impossible to test empirically.

“Social structure is so strong that it can affect a person’s appearance. These findings may indicate the extent to which other personal factors, even more important than names, such as gender or ethnicity, can shape the person people become later.”

More information:

Yonat Zwebner et al, Can Names Shape Facial Appearance?, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2405334121

Provided by Reichman University

Quote:New study reveals people’s faces evolve to match their names (2024, July 29) retrieved July 29, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-07-reveals-people-evolve.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without written permission. The content is provided for informational purposes only.