Men often called by the name

Darwin, Eistein, Lomonosov, Lenin. But Maria Sklodowska-Curie and Nadezhda Krupskaya. When we talk about professionals, whether scientists, politicians or athletes, we tend to call men by name and women by first name and last name.

In any case, this is indicated by the results of a new study, noting that this situation is more important than we think. Why? Well, at least because, it seems, if someone is referred to only by name, in the eyes of others this man automatically has more weight.

And one that, according to scientists, may be a factor of gender inequality in many professional fields.

Experiment with two Personname

Psychologist Becoming Atir (Stav Atir) from Cornell University (Cornell University) decided to conduct the study after he noticed that at the mention of male politicians, the media often use only last names, than in the case of women politicians. “At first it was just an observation, – quotes its words of New Scientist. But then I wanted to find out dystvitelno whether such a model exists, and if so, whether it has any consequences”.

Together with his colleague Melissa Ferguson (Melissa Ferguson) Ater the beginning of the study with an analysis of 5000 online surveys and transcripts of more than 300 entries on the subject of policies of various American radio resource. In another experiment, 184 volunteers were given identical texts on the work of the fictional chemists Delores Berson and Douglas persona that they had to rewrite it, keeping the information as complete as possible.

As a result of these and several other similar experiments, the scientists found that on average, both men and women are twice as likely to call men by name only, in contrast to women. In the experiment with Personae, for example, they were four times more prone to this. Insights, explain Atir and Ferguson, fair at least in relation to science, literature and politics.

The Matthew Effect

Hardly thought about it even the most progressive of us, but actually the emphasis on the name with men but not with women can have a real (and very important) consequences. In recent experiments, Atir and Ferguson found that scientists who are called by name, not by name and surname, often recognized more famous and prominent.

From past research we know that fame can lead to even greater recognition. This phenomenon in social psychology known as the Matthew effect because he resonates with the quote from the Parable of the talents in Matthew: “for unto every one that hath shall be given, and abundance, and those with no taken away and what has.” One study, for example, has shown that reviewers are more likely to positively evaluate the document known to the author when you know who wrote it. In contrast to the situations before them document all of the same famous author, but his name is hidden.

This same idea is reflected in the final experiment, Becoming Atir, where more than 500 people asked to speak, should scientists (some of whom were mentioned only by name and others by name) to the award of the National science Foundation in the amount of $ 500,000. In the end, those who were called solely by the name, is 14% more often recommended for the award.

And what is the result?

Despite the fact that the study was closely related to the issues of gender inequality, the authors believe that in fact women are often called names and not with malicious intent, but because that’s the way we all want to help them get recognition. “When you hear the name, you by default think that it’s a man,” says Atir. Thus, the full names of the women are almost always used in order to emphasize their contribution and participation. But positive motivation, alas, can lead to just the opposite.