2011/01/01 by Uri Simonsohn · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research #Similarity (geometry) #Spurious relationship #Causality (physics) #Personality #Ethnic group #Psychology #Social psychology #Attribution #Sociology #Anthropology #Computer science
paper · doi:10.1037/a0021990
openalex publication_date 2011/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Three articles published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology have shown that a disproportionate share of people choose spouses, places to live, and occupations with names similar to their own. These findings, interpreted as evidence of implicit egotism, are included in most modern social psychology textbooks and many university courses. The current article successfully replicates the original findings but shows that they are most likely caused by a combination of cohort, geographic, and ethnic confounds as well as reverse causality.