A new study found that we can actually guess about one out of every four people's names JUST by looking at them.
In the study, researchers showed participants a picture of a person's face and a list of four or five names. And they were able to correctly match the name to the face 25% to 40% of the time. If they were just guessing at random they should have only been correct 20% to 25% of the time.
The researchers think it's because names have subtle stereotypes, like, quote, "[We] imagine a person named Bob to have a rounder face than a person named Tim." And over time, people wind up letting those stereotypes influence their appearance.
(APA)