2024-08-03 23:57:31
In a study, when participants were shown a picture of an adult with four possible name choices, they chose the correct name far more often than would be possible by chance. However, when the children’s faces were shown, the study participants did not do as well at matching the faces to the names.
The results of the study suggest that as we mature, we tend to change our appearance to better match our name – be it hairstyle, make-up, glasses, earrings or even facial expressions.
“We have proved the existence of social constructivism, something that until now has been almost impossible to verify empirically,” says Yonat Zwebner, a marketing expert at Israel’s Reichman University. – Social constructivism is so strong that it can affect a person’s appearance. These findings provide insight into the importance of other, even more important factors than names, such as gender or ethnicity.”
Previous studies have found data that a person’s face suggests their name. But it wasn’t clear whether this happened because people were given names that matched their innate facial features when they were babies, or whether their appearance changed over time to better match their name.
This study tested this theory using humans and machine learning algorithms. It was carried out by researchers from Reichmann University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
In the test, children aged 8-12 and adults over 18 were asked to match the faces of children and adults – and their corresponding names – from a selection of answers.
Both young and older participants were equally good at matching adult faces to their corresponding names, but they were unable to do the same with 9- or 10-year-olds.
Even when the faces of these young people were digitally aged to look like adults, the participants failed to guess their names any more than they could have done by chance – suggesting that a person’s facial appearance changes after childhood to better match their name over time .
In a further test, machine learning algorithms were trained to process a dataset of facial images. The algorithm, like the people who took the test, found that adults with the same name were more similar to each other than adults with different names.
However, the same could not be said for children with the same names.
“These results show that even our face can be influenced by a social factor such as a name, confirming the strong influence of social expectations,” Zwebner and her colleagues write.
The researchers explain that over the years, people can internalize the expectations and characteristics associated with a name, “consciously or unconsciously incorporating them into their identity and choices.”
Now the researchers want to know at what age a person starts to have stereotypes associated with their name.
The study is published in the journal PNAS.
Parengta pagal „Science Alert“.
2024-08-03 23:57:31