Bob Kirk Effect
What others think of you – when they only hear your name
© Alessandro Cristiano / Shutterstock
When we first see a person, we form a preliminary opinion within seconds – and exactly the same thing happens when we just hear their name …
Hairstyle, shoes, gender, handshake. When we get to know someone, the most banal and superficial characteristics – which we often do not even consciously perceive – partly determine how we feel about them and what we think of them at first (you can find out what little things others use to judge you in our article). But, according to a Canadian study, we don’t even have to see him for this: In order to get a picture of a person, psychologists at the University of Calgary found out, it is enough for our hastily judging brain to simply hear their name!
Maluma Takete Phenomenon: Sounds shape our ideas
The fact that we associate certain sounds with certain sounds has been known for a long time and has been proven across cultures. Soft, voiced sounds like m, l, b, n, g have a more gentle, “round” and pleasant effect on us; Voiceless, hard phones like p, k, t, on the other hand, are “angular”, strong and intimidating.
Already 90 years ago this phenomenon was described with the “Maluma-Takete-Effect”: Test subjects who were given the task of assigning meaningless sound combinations such as “Maluma” and “Takete” to either a round or an angular shape ranked with a significant majority “Maluma” the round figure and “Takete” the square figure.
Bob Kirk Effect: First names shape our prejudices
As the two Canadian scientists David Sidhu and Penny Pexman found out in a modified experiment and in “Current Directions in Psychological Science“published, similar rules also apply to first names: In their experiment, the two psychologists had more than 100 students assign the first names” Bob “and” Kirk “as well as” Molly “and” Kate “to soft, rounded or hard and wiry comic characters around 70 percent were called the plump heroes “Bob” or “Molly”, while the angular heroes were called “Kirk” and “Kate.” But that’s not all.
In addition to associations with appearance, the psychologists also asked about certain properties: While “Bobs”, “Mollys”, “Julias” and “Dans” were mostly assigned attributes such as funny, personable and cozy, the test subjects associated “Kirk”, “Kate” or “Patrick” rather aggressive, assertive and dominant characters.
So if you have a blind date with Michael and are looking forward to a fun, cozy evening: Don’t be disappointed if the funny Michi turns out to be serious Kurt afterwards …