{"id":311,"date":"2025-09-03T19:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/good-worldwide.go-vip.net\/upworthy\/2025\/09\/03\/spiky-names-job-application\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T19:57:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:57:00","slug":"spiky-names-job-application","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodinc.com\/qa-upworthy\/2025\/09\/03\/spiky-names-job-application\/","title":{"rendered":"People with ‘spiky’ names are less likely to get job interviews. Do you have one?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been many studies in the past that show people face a lot of bias when they turn in a job application<\/a>. A 2021 study<\/u><\/a> found that job applicants who had “Black-sounding” names <\/a>were nine percent less likely to get a call back than those whose names sounded “white.<\/a>” People who review resumes<\/a> are also looking for subtle clues of social class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 2016 Yale study<\/a> found that men who appear to be upper-class in job applications fare much better than women of the same class when applying to elite positions. However, lower-class women perform better than lower-class men in the same process. Unfortunately, sex, race, and class bias are significant issues when it comes to hiring, but another prejudice has nothing to do with inherent characteristics: the way your name sounds can make a big difference when you send in a job application. <\/p>\n

Do people judge job applications based on your name?<\/h2>\n

A recent study carried out<\/u><\/a> by The Conversation<\/em> <\/a>found that people attribute personality characteristics to people based on whether their name sounds “smooth” or “spiky.” The researchers designed a job ad looking for a candidate high in one of six personality factors: honesty\/humility, emotionality, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness (how organized or hard-working someone is), and openness to experience. <\/p>\n

\n

\"spiky
People lined up for job interviews. u200bvia Canva\/Photos<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

The researchers sent in applications with people who had smooth-sounding names with sonorant consonants (l, m, n), and the others were spiky with voiceless stops (p, t, k). <\/p>\n

Some examples of smooth names (sonorant consonants) include:<\/strong> Joanna, June, Norah, Allen, Linus, and Moses.<\/p>\n

Some examples of spiky names (voiceless stops) include: <\/strong>Rita, Erica, Tia, Kurt, and Victor.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that individuals with smooth-sounding names were perceived as more agreeable and emotional, whereas those with spikier names were seen as more extroverted. So, if people are hiring for a job where they were looking for agreeable characteristics, those with smooth-sounding names had a better chance of getting the gig.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, according to researchers, the way a name sounds has nothing to do with someone\u2019s personality. In real life, Lou and Erica may be just as agreeable as one another. But when hiring managers are just looking at names, Lou gets the gig. <\/p>\n

What is sound symbolism?<\/h2>\n

The idea that the sound of a word can make it feel aligned with particular qualities is known as sound symbolism. It\u2019s why we often say that so-and-so looks like an Emma or a Charles. A popular study on the phenomenon known as the Bouba \/ Kiki effect<\/a> found that when given the two names Kiki (spiky) and Bouba (smooth), they are much more likely to call the figure on the left Kiki and the one on the right Bouba. Although researchers don\u2019t know the exact reason why we map certain sounds to specific shapes, they believe it may reflect how we move our mouths to make those sounds. <\/p>\n

\n

\"bouba
The Bouba \/u00a0Kiki effect. via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rounded shape may most commonly be named \u2018Bouba\u2019 because the mouth makes a more rounded shape to produce that sound, while a more taut, angular mouth shape is needed to make the sounds in \u2018Kiki.\u2019 Alternatively, the distinction may be between coronal or dorsal consonants like \/k\/ and labial consonants like \/b\/,\u201d researchers at Mind Modeling<\/u><\/a> wrote.<\/p>\n

The study may reveal that there\u2019s one more thing many of us have to worry about when applying for a job. But it\u2019s also a reminder that we all have some sort of bias, and next time we see a name without knowing the person, we may be judging them based on criteria that doesn’t reflect who they are. Much like it\u2019s wrong to judge a book by its cover, judging someone by their name may mean you miss out on someone truly wonderful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Name-based bias goes even beyond race, sex, and class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":188259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alternative_headline":"","alternative_description":"","alternative_featured_image":0,"rkv_announcement":{"visible":true},"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"partner_boost":false,"hide_partner_badge":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[661,146,409],"tags":[135,611,1054,1055,1056,1057,1058,1059,636,1060,1061,1062,1063,1064,1065],"sponsor":[],"rkv-people-shadow":[215],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","category-popular","category-science","tag-popular_source-pageview","tag-bias","tag-bouba-kiki","tag-job-application","tag-job-application-bias","tag-job-candidates","tag-judgement","tag-mouth-shapes","tag-names","tag-personality-attributes","tag-resumes","tag-sex-race-class","tag-smooth-names","tag-sound-symbolism","tag-spiky-names"],"edit_link":null,"apple_news_notices":[],"rkv_author":{"id":215,"name":"Tazreena Sajjad","display_name":"Tazreena Sajjad","first_name":"","last_name":"","nickname":"","url":"https:\/\/goodinc.com\/qa-upworthy\/author\/tazreena-sajjad\/","link":"https:\/\/goodinc.com\/qa-upworthy\/author\/tazreena-sajjad\/","description":"","slug":"tazreena-sajjad","avatar_urls":[],"email":false},"yoast_head":"\nPeople with 'spiky' names are less likely to get job interviews. 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