The Social Name-Letter Effect on Online Social Networks

TL;DR

This study investigates the presence of the Name-Letter Effect in online social networks and finds limited support for it, but uncovers a strong Same-Name Effect influencing social link formation.

Contribution

The paper replicates the Name-Letter Effect in social networks and introduces the robust Same-Name Effect, expanding understanding of name-based social preferences.

Findings

Limited support for the Name-Letter Effect on social networks.

Strong evidence for the Same-Name Effect in link formation.

Effect persists across gender, nationality, race, and age.

Abstract

The Name-Letter Effect states that people have a preference for brands, places, and even jobs that start with the same letter as their own first name. So Sam might like Snickers and live in Seattle. We use social network data from Twitter and Google+ to replicate this effect in a new environment. We find limited to no support for the Name-Letter Effect on social networks. We do, however, find a very robust Same-Name Effect where, say, Michaels would be more likely to link to other Michaels than Johns. This effect persists when accounting for gender, nationality, race, and age. The fundamentals behind these effects have implications beyond psychology as understanding how a positive self-image is transferred to other entities is important in domains ranging from studying homophily to personalized advertising and to link formation in social networks.