July 31, 2024 — While it is known that adults can match people’s faces to their names at above-chance levels, a new multifaced study by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that both adults and children could accurately match adult faces to their names above chance levels.

In the study published in PNAS, the research team sought to determine whether this face-name congruence is present from birth or develops over time. The experiments combine human perception tests and advanced machine learning techniques while offering new insights into the cultural stereotypes we attach to names and how they developed.

The research was conducted by Prof. Ruth Mayo and Noa Grobgeld of the Department of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, together with Dr. Yonat Zwebner, Dr. Moses Miller, and Prof. Jacob Goldenberg of Reichman University’s Arison School of Business.

Key findings include:

• Both adults and children could accurately match adult faces to their names above chance levels.
• Adults and children could not match children’s faces to their names above chance levels.
• This name-based facial similarity was not observed among children.
• Machine learning algorithms found greater similarity between facial representations of adults sharing the same name compared to those with different names.
• Artificially aged images of children’s faces did not exhibit the face-name matching effect seen in actual adult faces.

“These results suggest that the congruence between facial appearance and names is not innate but rather develops as individuals mature,” says Prof. Mayo. “It appears that people may alter their appearance over time to conform to cultural expectations associated with their name.”

This “self-fulfilling prophecy” highlights the profound impact that social factors have. The study suggests that even seemingly arbitrary social tags like names can shape our appearance in subtle yet measurable ways. The research raises fascinating questions about identity formation and the long-term effects of social expectations on individual development.

Prof. Mayo emphasizes that further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind this face-name-matching effect and its broader implications. However, this study represents a significant step forward in understanding how social factors shape who we become.

The research paper titled “Can names shape facial appearance” can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2405334121.

Researchers:

Yonat Zwebner¹, Moses Miller², Noa Grobgeld³, Jacob Goldenberg^1,4, Ruth Mayo⁵

Institution:

1. Marketing Department, Arison School of Business, Reichman University
2. Data Science Department, Arison School of Business, Reichman University
3. Clinical Child and Educational Psychology, The Seymour Fox School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
4. Marketing Department, Columbia Business School, Columbia University
5. Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem