They call this research?

August 12, 2004 3:59 AM

Attractiveness of your name is linked to attractiveness of your face. Even more interesting, the so called "professional" researcher used the service "Hot or Not" to conduct her research by uploading fake profiles.
posted by banished (12 comments total)

Attractiveness of your name is linked to attractiveness of your pudenda. Even more interesting, the so called "professional" researcher used the service "Hot Teens" to conduct her research.
posted by biffa at 4:53 AM on August 12, 2004

Such a big deal over a poster session! Link to original (very short) article here (pdf); Amy Perfors' other work here. So you can better judge the credibility of her claims.
posted by kmel at 6:54 AM on August 12, 2004

This is why I changed my name to Max Power.
posted by amauck at 7:46 AM on August 12, 2004

Do you ever miss the snuggling?
posted by biffa at 8:28 AM on August 12, 2004

"An attractive person with a bad vowel name is still more attractive than an unattractive person with a good vowel name" is my new bumper sticker.
posted by occhiblu at 8:51 AM on August 12, 2004

Wonder how this maps to other languages?
posted by signal at 9:01 AM on August 12, 2004

front or back vowels

Well, personally, I'm an ass man.
posted by Peter H at 9:17 AM on August 12, 2004

She found that men labelled with names including “front vowels,” such as the “aaa” sound in Matt were rated as more attractive by website viewers than photos labelled with “back vowel” names, such as the “aw” sound in Paul.

I guess that would explain why MeFi's proprietor is more popular than me.
posted by pmurray63 at 9:26 AM on August 12, 2004

This research is blatant abuse of Hot or Not.
posted by reklaw at 11:33 AM on August 12, 2004

As a clear demonstration of her objectivity, note that her own name "Amy" is listed as an unsexy, "Bad for Women" name.

I don't know - she seems pretty hot to me - an 8?...well, maybe - I dunno. Hmm, maybe not, now that you think about it....7? 6? Well, 4 at least...
posted by jasper411 at 12:01 PM on August 12, 2004

Oh great. Now it's not enough that I have an ugly face, I have an ugly name that's making my face uglier.
posted by dodgygeezer at 3:03 PM on August 12, 2004

There was a very beautiful girl I went to high school with who was named "Olga". So, of course, her nickname was "Ugly Olga" and the odd thing was that one stopped noticing she was beautiful.

I'm not suggesting that this is a trend, but I'm just saying. Cary Grant would not have seemed so suave and debonair had he gone by his real name of "Archie Leach", after all...
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:53 PM on August 12, 2004