
Name-letter Effect - privong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name-letter_effect
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scarmig
Do people also use letters that they like more than other letters?

If so, an interesting proof of concept might be to reconstruct a person's full
birth name from a corpus of their writing.

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jpttsn
I don't really know why I'm sharing this but I hate the letter M. When I start
sentences, I tend to avoid it on a whim, to the detriment of being expressive.

I realize starting sentences with "my" or "maybe" would be much more
expressive, but I irrationally refrain from it.

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captn3m0
muphobia is the fear of the letter m.

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jpttsn
Just like dyslexia ought to be easier to spell, I don't think I'll be using
that word.

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breakingcups
I've discovered that many, many people will choose a (Android) lockscreen
pattern that will closely resemble the first letter of their name.

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drostie
I may be an exception, I preferred 59273 because it reminded me of the
Federation's logo (from Star Trek), but my name does not have an A in it.

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cgb223
Probably not a great idea to post your phone password on a public forum...

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freehunter
The likelihood that anyone who sees this will also ever have physical access
to their phone is astronomical.

My disk encryption password is 1223334. Doesn't do you much good when you have
to be sitting in front of my computer to use it.

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mistersquid
What about the following scenario?

An associate (personal, professional, business, etc.) of yours knows your HN
handle and has read your post, above.

At some point, that associate is with you when you are using your computer.
You briefly leave your machine unattended and unlocked for whatever reason
(e.g. restroom).

Your associate now may be able to compromise your security.

Extending the above scenario: what happens when the above post draws the
attention of people who decide to become an associate of yours _after_ the
fact (aka "spearphishing")?

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freehunter
You’re right, I’m going to track him down and befriend him in person now that
I know his passcode. That’s worth my time and money instead of, I don’t know,
just beating him with a shovel until he tells me his password. Or picking a
victim I already know. Or any other number of far more likely and easily
executed schemes.

~~~
mistersquid
Social engineering has the "advantage" that the compromise may go undetected
longer than with cruder methods such as torture.

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soared
How much you like the letters in your name is used as an indirect method for
measuring self esteem. If I really don't like the letters e,o,a,s,r, and d...
then I probably don't like myself either.

What’s really in a Name-Letter Effect? Name-letter preferences as indirect
measures of self-esteem:
[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10463283.2014.980...](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10463283.2014.980085)

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scotty79
How can you like or dislike a letter?

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mc32
While I don't have a dislike for any letter, I do dislike a couple of decimal
numbers, one of which is a birthday number. I prefer odds over evens.

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Jedd
> I prefer odds over evens.

A few years ago someone told me that for anything other than within a
especially formal garden design, most people prefer the visual of odd numbers
of similar plants grouped together - from small bulbs planted at the scale of
several centimetres, up to large trees planted at ten metres or more apart.

Of course, how you identify what most people 'prefer' is challenging - it may
be more a reflection of what looks natural or random.

But, like how red cars are often spotted in groups of three, once I started
noticing numbers of like plants clumped together, at various scales, it does
seem to hold true.

Your preference may be more deep-seated than at a purely integer level. :)

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mc32
On the other hand the negative spaces are even.

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Jedd
Do you mean between every pairing of items?

Apparently this 'odd numbers look better' stands regardless of proximity
between each item. Keep an eye out for occurrences - it's a pretty subjective
interpretation, I'm sure.

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chasing
My name just uses all of the best letters.

Objectively.

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crooked-v
Ah, so I presume your name is Squdgy Fez Blank Jimp Crwth Vox?

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bad_hairpiece
In a similar vein, research has found a positive correlation between the
number of right letter QWERTY keys in a word and the positivity felt towards
those words. Source:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3348452/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3348452/)

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saagarjha
> Most people like themselves

[Citation Needed]

~~~
ebcode
seriously

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Illniyar
The study method seems to be "rate the letters by how much you like them".

While it looks like the study has been repeated enough to not be total
quackery, there is still the question of what's the point. Does your
preference for a particular letter has an effect on your choices?

I doubt the research about people preferring brands with the names in their
letters has properly ruled out other variables, or would prove to be
significant.

How many people actually give thought about what letters they like the most?
I'm guessing the study was the first time the subjects were ever exposed to
the thought of liking a letter. As such, ot seems reasonable to go for some
point of reference that is simple and available, auch as your own name.

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ComodoHacker
The article also mentions study of charity donations.

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Illniyar
Skimming the article for that study, I don't find anything wrong with it
superficially, but while the effect might be statistically significant, they
are tiny - I.E. from 4.2% of donors to 5.5% had K initial in Katrina, and 10%
to 12% in Hurrican Mitch (though the data might be bad, since the actual data
did not contain the exact information they needed).

Also the effect was apparently not noticeable in Hurrican Rita.

There is also no mention of the percent of people starting with the letter
from the given population - since the dataset for before the hurricane was
much smaller (Katrina- ~300 before, ~4000 after), it's very likely that the
proportions of named individuals drifted to the average, as what happens in
larger datasets.

The number of hurricanes tested was also small - I.E. 3 , I'm not sure an
effect can be inferred from such small numbers.

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thaumasiotes
> subjects are not aware that they are choosing letters from their name

This seems unlikely to be true as stated.

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sandcaaat
I created an account just to give you a vote.

> Crucially, subjects are not aware that they are choosing letters from their
> name.

That is asinine. By what mechanism can a researcher make someone forget how to
spell their name?

This is simply a theory that says "People are most comfortable and familiar
with things which they are comfortable and familiar with." It's an essentially
meaningless psychological observation.

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ecesena
Can you imagine personalized ads choosing words with a prevalence of letters
from your name?

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zkms
I wonder how this works with people who have gotten legal name changes, or
people who regularly go by a non-legal name or a pseudonym.

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Pxtl
It's actually in tfa - both the original and chosen names show the effect.

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stordoff
It addresses name change by marriage; I'd be curious to know if it holds where
the reason for the change was to expressly disavow the old name (e.g. changing
away from the family name of an abusive parent).

Edit: typo fix (it'd -> I'd)

~~~
zkms
I am interested in this as well.

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miguelrochefort
Is there a test I can take online for that?

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dogruck
LBJ

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known
What about A E I O U

~~~
mistersquid
You posed a question without a question mark which makes me wonder presently,
and sometimes, why?

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incompatible
I asked somebody to give me three letters, they picked ABC. So much for that
theory, I thought. Then I read a bit more and it said that it doesn't work on
people who don't like themselves. It sounds like pop psychology, actually.

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coldtea
> _It sounds like pop psychology, actually._

Not if it's actually studied psychology and has been verified again and again
in experiments.

Besides, it doesn't work that way "gimme 3 letters", where ABC is a very easy
and probable answer. And one random exchange with a sample of one and no
controls ("I asked somebody") is not how you disqualify a theory ("so much for
that theory").

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incompatible
Sure, I wasn't entirely serious. I wonder how the test should be done. If
somebody asked me for a few random letters, I'd have to ponder for some time
about how to generate letters randomly. It would be easier if there was some
(semi?)random input available, such as cars going past with various number
plates.

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yorwba
_Whether subjects are asked to rank all letters of the alphabet, rate each of
the letters, choose the letter they prefer out of a set of two, or pick a
small set of letters they most prefer, on average people consistently like the
letters in their own name the most._

Second sentence of the first paragraph.

