Spurious? Name Similarity Effects (Implicit Egotism) in Marriage, Job and Moving Decisions
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Forthcoming
61 Pages Posted: 16 Jun 2010 Last revised: 8 May 2012
Date Written: June 16, 2010
Abstract
Three Journal of Personality and Social Psychology papers have shown that a disproportionate share of people choose spouses, places to live, and occupations with names similar to their own. These findings, interpreted as evidence of implicit egotism, are now included in most modern social psychology textbooks and many university courses. This paper successfully replicates the original findings but then shows that they are most likely caused by a combination of cohort, geographic and ethnic confounds, and reverse causality.
Keywords: Implicit Egotism, Behavioral Economics, Social Psychology, Methodology, Archival Data
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