Name-Letter Preferences for New Last Name and Abandoned Birth Name Initials in the Context of Name-Change via Marriage

2011/12/21 by Stefan Stieger, Etienne P. LeBel · 5 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Context (archaeology) #Demography #History #Linguistics #Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research #Proper noun #Psychology #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Robustness (evolution) #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social psychology #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000075

openalex publication_date 2011/12/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

Although the name-letter task is one of the most frequently used measures of implicit self-esteem, no research has examined whether the name-letter effect emerges for new last name initials and abandoned birth name initials in the context of marriage. Additionally, no systematic investigation has examined the robustness of the name-letter effect across age cohorts. In a large heterogeneous sample (N = 1,380), reliable letter preferences were found for new last name initials and for abandoned birth name initials, even after 20 years of marriage. In addition, robust name-letter effects emerged across all assessed age cohorts. Implications for the implicit self-esteem literature regarding the robustness of the name-letter task for married and nonmarried individuals of all post-pubescent ages are discussed.

Citations

• Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes.
• Why Susie sells seashells by the seashore: Implicit egotism and major life decisions.
• Affective consequences of mere ownership: The name letter effect in twelve European languages
• Mastery pleasure versus mere ownership: A quasi‐experimental cross‐cultural and cross‐alphabetical test of the name letter effect
• Association learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning.
• Name Letter Preferences Are Not Merely Mere Exposure: Implicit Egotism as Self-Regulation
• Implicit partner affect, relationship satisfaction, and the prediction of romantic breakup
• Narcissism beyond Gestalt and awareness: The name letter effect
• The name letter effect: Attachment to self or primacy of own name writing?
• Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
• How to find what's in a name: Scrutinizing the optimality of five scoring algorithms for the name‐letter task
• What's in a name: Implicit self-esteem and the automatic self.

Cited by

• What’s really in a Name-Letter Effect? Name-letter preferences as indirect measures of self-esteem
• Measuring Implicit Gender-Role Orientation: The Gender Initial Preference Task
• Initial and noninitial name-letter preferences as obtained through repeated letter rating tasks continue to reflect (different aspects of) self-esteem.
• The Name-Letter-Effect in Groups: Sharing Initials with Group Members Increases the Quality of Group Work
• Name-letter effect [wikipedia]