Humans have an incredible ability to guess a person's name simply based on the appearance of their face.
A new study has found it could be a case of self-fulfilling prophecy.
When a photograph of an adult was shown to participants with four possible name choices, they choose the correct name at a rate well above chance. When child faces were shown, however, the study's participants weren't nearly as good at matching faces to names.
The findings suggest that we tend to alter our appearance as we mature to better suit our own names, whether it be through hairstyles, makeup, glasses, piercings, or even facial expressions.
"We have demonstrated that social constructs, or structuring, do exist – something that until now has been almost impossible to test empirically," explains Yonat Zwebner, a marketing expert from the Reichman University in Israel.
"Social structuring is so strong that it can affect a person's appearance. These findings may imply the extent to which other personal factors that are even more significant than names, such as gender or ethnicity, may shape who people grow up to be."
Written by Carly Cassella for Science Alert.
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