How Your Last Name Can Affect You

[Hum]

While your last name, itself, has little effect on what you do, the way it was used to categorize you in grade school may affect the way you think. Time Magazine highlights a study that explains how being at the end of an alphabetically-ordered line for the majority of your childhood can cause you to make rash decisions.

There is no fairness in alphabetical order. If your name starts with a Z, you're at the end. As it turns out, this can actually mess with your head over time:

"For years, simply because of your name, you've received inequitable treatment," says Kurt Carlson, an assistant professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business and a co-author of the paper, which is to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research. "So when you get to exercise control, you seize on opportunity. It's a coping strategy, and over time it becomes a natural way to respond."

The study found that this translated into many real-world results, such as acting on time-sensitive offers and deals. People with last names beginning with letters later in the alphabet tended to jump on these deals much faster in fear of missing out. The study believes this fear was cultivated by always being in the back of the line, causing the lower-lettered last name subjects to concern themselves with being too late to the party.

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[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

My wife is a teacher and she was taught in University to go back and forth between doing roll and doing other things starting with Z and then A and again just going back and forth so some children arent always first or last depending on their name.

When i was a kid though I was always First as my last name starts with BE

[spaceelf]

Next thing you know everyones last name will start with A,B,C and studies will say the others lead to creative thinking

[chconline Veteran]

Mine starts with a K. I'm always in the middle regardless of which :(

[+Warwagon MVC]

My last name starts with B and My first name Starts with A ... so I"M GOLDEN baby!

[threetonesun]

Mine starts with a K. I'm always in the middle regardless of which :(

I'm a middler too, but that has had no effect compared to the ethnicity of my name. :cat:

[ShMaunder]

What a load of bull****. Who paid to conduct this 'study'?

[+Warwagon MVC]

What a load of bull****. Who paid to conduct this 'study'?

Someones name is at the end of the Alphabet! :laugh:

[Amarok]

Someones name is at the end of the Alphabet! :laugh:

I dunno, my last name starts with a G and I was always 4-5th in a line of 30~ people in school. My feelings are similar to the guy you responded to, except a little less aggressive. ;)

[rfirth]

Someones name is at the end of the Alphabet! :laugh:

Dr. ZZZZZZZZZZZZaardvark

[Hum]

What a load of bull****. Who paid to conduct this 'study'?

:shifty: Post cereal co.

[bogas04]

Singh is King

[firey]

My last name starts with a C. More often than not the teachers would start at Z and go the opposite way or start in the middle and go backwards to A then up to Z. I surely was not always picked first.

[neo158]

My last name starts with T. Not that I really care though.

All you have to do to prove this wrong is read the first comment:

Rockefeller, Rothschild, Soros, Robertson, Walton, Zuckerberg, Simons, Zell, Ziff, Redstone, Trump, Turner....The list goes on. Strong work Time magazine