Scott’s Blog Experience

It’s easier to remember a “Bill” who really fits the bill, according to a new study.

Names tend to be associated with certain facial features — Bobs have rounder faces than Tims, for example — and it’s easier to learn a person’s name if his face matches it.

“Their faces did not fit the name they were given,” Thomas said.

Robin Thomas, a cognitive scientist at Miami University in Ohio, noticed that she frequently confused the names of two of her students.

This didn’t happen to her often, so she wondered if there was more to it than just forgetfulness.

She decided to test whether Americans have common ideas about what people with certain names should look like. She and her colleagues asked 150 college students to design faces, using facial-construction software similar to the type police use, for 15 common American male names.

To keep things simple, all of the faces were white and wore the same hairstyle.

Her team then asked a second group of students to rate how well these constructed faces seemed to fit their names.

The group agreed that many of the constructs matched — the strongest fits were for the names Bob, Bill, Brian and Jason.

Yea, I’m not sure what all this means? This face could be called Bill, Bob, Mike, or Joe. I am pretty sure after looking at this pic, you will want to forget it.