人如其名或許真的存在

Do you look like your name? Scientists say there’s a good chance you do.

一個人的長相和名字是否相關?科學家稱有很大概率的確如此。

This comes from a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers from Israel found that our given names may carry social stereotypes (成見), which can be seen in our facial appearances.

這一結論來源于《人格與社會心理學期刊》發(fā)布的一項新研究。來自以色列的研究者們發(fā)現(xiàn)，我們的名字中或許帶有社會成見，而這點能從我們的容貌上看出來。

Lead author Yonat Zwebner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, along with her team, carried out eight separate studies involving hundreds of participants (參與者) in Israel and France. The different experiments were set up to answer two main questions: whether people can accurately guess a person’s name based only on a headshot (頭像) and what is behind this matching effect.

該研究的第一作者是希伯來大學的Yonat Zwebner。她和她的團隊在以色列和法國開展了八項獨立研究，參與者有數(shù)百人。這些不同的實驗想要回答兩個主要的問題：人們是否能夠僅憑頭像就準確地猜出一個人的名字，以及這一匹配效應背后的原理又是什么。

During the experiments, researchers asked students to look at photos of people’s faces and guess each person’s name from a list of four choices. The participants correctly guessed the right name 38 percent of the time, which was better than the 25 percent rate of a random (隨機的) one-in-four guess.

在實驗過程中，研究者們讓學生看著人像照，并從四個選項中猜出每個人的名字。參與者們當時猜對了38%的名字，比隨機四選一25%的概率還要高。

What’s more, the students were able to best match the faces to the names when the faces they looked at came from within their own culture. French students were better at matching only French names and faces while Israeli students were better at matching only Hebrew names and Israeli faces.

更重要的是，當學生們看到和他們來自同一文化的人臉時，匹配名字和臉的能力最強。法國學生能更好地匹配法國人的名字和樣貌，而以色列學生則更擅長匹配希伯來語名字和以色列人的面孔。

Researchers believe it is possible that people change their appearance without being aware (意識到) of it, to match social norms (規(guī)范) carried by their names. One study in particular backed up this idea, showing that a hairstyle, something that can be changed by individuals (個人) easily, was enough to guide people in accurately guessing their names.

研究者們認為，為了和名字中蘊含的社會規(guī)范相匹配，人們有可能在不知不覺中改變自己的外表。一項研究專門證實了這一點，該研究表明，個人可以輕而易舉改變的發(fā)型，就足以使別人準確猜到自己的名字。

“Earlier research has shown there are cultural stereotypes carried by names, including how someone should look. For example, people are more likely to imagine a person named Bob to have a rounder face than a person named Tim. We believe these stereotypes can, over time, influence people’s facial appearance,” Zwebner concluded.

“先前的研究已經(jīng)表明名字中帶有文化成見，這也包含了一個人的長相。”打個比方說，和叫蒂姆的人相比，人們更傾向于將叫鮑勃的人想象成一個圓臉的人。我們相信，隨著時間的流逝，這些固有印象影響著人們的容貌，”Zwebner 總結道。

The results of the experiment may even make parents think twice when choosing a name for their child.

該實驗的結果或許會讓父母在為孩子取名時三思而行。

“If a name can influence appearance, it can influence many other things and this research opens an important direction that may suggest how parents should consider better the names they give their children,” said Zwebner, who recently had a baby herself.

“如果名字能夠影響容貌，那它也能影響許多其他事情。而這一研究則指明了一個大方向，令家長們在給孩子起名一事上更加認真考慮。”

“As parents, it was really difficult for us to name our 12-day-old daughter as we are aware of the implication (意義) of names.”

“作為父母，給我們12天大的女兒取名真的很難，因為我們知道了名字的意義。”