Biased Preferences to Names

Authors

Timothy J. Panek, Lindenwood University
Megan Gibson, Lindenwood University

Abstract

The experimenters intended to show support that children have a bias against names that are uncommon and difficult to pronounce. Common and uncommon names were taken from the social security administration. Sixty-nine college students participated in a survey to determine what names are difficult to pronounce. Names that were common and easy to pronounce were paired with those names that were uncommon and difficult to pronounce. These pairings underwent a t-test to ensure they were significantly different from each other. Twenty-one children whose ages range from 6 to 12 took part in an interview on preferences of names. In using a chi square analysis, statistical significance was found at the .001 level, showing support for the hypothesis that children prefer names that are common and easy to pronounce

Recommended Citation

Panek, Timothy J. and Gibson, Megan (2005) "Biased Preferences to Names," Undergraduate Psychology Research Methods Journal: Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 16.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/psych_journals/vol1/iss3/16

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Publication Date

5-2005