…but depending on which of the four conditions they’d been assigned to, the rest of the email varied. For those in the first (control) condition, it ended there. In contrast, those in the fourth condition received this additional information:
I’m also lucky to be a friend of Roger Federer’s (we’ve known each other for ages, ever since kindergarten), we hang out or play Playstation, and from time to time we exercise together, go for runs or stuff, well, if he has time that is. Roger’s a really nice guy. All those honors he gets, he deserves it, trust me, he’s an exceptional person both on the court and beyond! This year again was great for him and I hope he’ll continue like that for another couple of years!
Looking forward to meeting you, See you Wednesday,
Michael
When the participants later showed up for the bogus study, they were administered a questionnaire that asked them, among other things, how they felt about “Michael.” As hypothesized, those in the two name-dropping conditions judged Michael as significantly less likeable and less competent in general than did those in the other two conditions. There was only a negligible (that is to say, statistically insignificant) difference between the conditions in which Michael claimed to be Federer’s friend or both his friend and training partner: participants didn’t look kindly on either claim.
Unfortunately, the psychological processes involved in this assessment aren’t entirely clear from this preliminary study. But it’s valuable to the extent that it empirically demonstrated a measurable effect of name-dropping on social evaluation. The authors believe that those in the name-dropping conditions felt manipulated by Michael, and that they viewed this sycophantic Federer love-fest as so jarring, unexpected and inappropriate that it prompted a search of Michael’s deceptive intentions.
The authors contrast their findings to a number of related studies showing that the audience’s perception of an actor’s relationship with positive others renders the actor more appealing. For example, in a study from 2006 by psychologists Seth Carter and Lawrence Sanna at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, people were more tolerant and forgiving of someone who shared their birthday with Mother Teresa than they were of others. And an older study from 1981 by psychologists Michael Kernis and Ladd Wheeler, then at the University of Rochester, revealed that people who were friends with physically attractive people were often seen as more attractive themselves. In contrast to the name-dropping experiment, however, participants in these other studies found out about the actors’ associations without the actor verbally boasting about their connections.
Oh, gosh, look at the time. I really must go; I forgot all about my dinner engagement with Gore Vidal this evening. You know how he gets. (I’ll dish about it next week.)
In this column presented by Scientific American Mind magazine, research psychologist Jesse Bering of Queen's University Belfast ponders some of the more obscure aspects of everyday human behavior. Ever wonder why yawning is contagious, why we point with our index fingers instead of our thumbs or whether being breastfed as an infant influences your sexual preferences as an adult? Get a closer look at the latest data as “Bering in Mind” tackles these and other quirky questions about human nature. Sign up for the RSS feed or friend Dr. Bering on Facebook and never miss an installment again.
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10 Comments
Add CommentShouldn't that be "So I Says to Roger Federer, I says..."? ;)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would want to see an authoritarian and political spectrum analysis matched to this as well. For some personality types connection to a higher positive person, elevates themselves in their minds (and if faking it, lowers it in the minds of others).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSuch superiority games are more frequent and open in authoritarian mindsets, and those of the conservative spectrum.
Those who are offended by name-dropping probably just don't know anyone famous. Otherwise they would reciprocate rather than get pissy. I had a celebrity poke with a rock chick 30 years ago and just about the only person who knows is my wife, and she teases me about it. People also don't like narcissists, which are very similar to name-droppers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd the king of name droppers is: oh, how I hesitate to mention the name! I must! Richard Hoagland. Hands down. 'Tissue-thin'? The man defined it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe's entertaining as hell, though.
Jesse...your articles on boobs and penises get a lot more response. I guess name-dropping isn't very controversial. Sex certainly is.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI personally find the question of why name-dropping behavior is offensive more interesting. Why is arrogance, egotism, name-dropping and such a serious social offense, relegating the offender to a social purgatory? My thought is that because the listener senses a threat of sorts to their own self -honoring, but I'd like to see some good empirical work here. And is my lumping together arrogance, egotism, and name-dropping appropriate in this context?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy first guess as to why name dropping is offensive is that it is seen as both a form of bragging and social cheating. First the name dropper is intimating that they are more important than you because they know so and so. Second they are expecting special treatment based on this connection. They are in a sense "cheating" as they did not earn whatever makes so and so important but are trying to trade on it socially based on no more than their association.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen we know someone is the friend of an important personage we do not have the same reaction we may feel envious but it actually makes them more interesting. It is only when they are trying to trade on that association for some sort of personal gain.
Also humans are very sensitive to social cues. If someone throws a reference into a conversation with a premeditated goal in mind or forces a conversation in a direction that allows them to name drop a discord or feeling of something artificial will ring warning bells in the mind of the listener. Usually when that happens it is because someone is lying, so the name dropper may be perceived as dishonest. (The same result may happen any time a conversation is artificially re-directed to enable one speaker to brag about something or insert a comment designed to make them seem more learned or accomplished.)
It's not that hard, people. Name-dropping is an obnoxious and transparent attempt at garnering cheap ego boosts and praise from others. And you have to ask why it turns people off?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI, being a close personal friend of Roger Federer, would have known immediately that Michael wasn't truly a friend. LOL! I wonder how much the dislike of the name dropper stems from jealousy. If someone is a big fan of Roger Federer then they might be jealous of this relationship and choose to dislike Michael because of it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI, being a close personal friend of Roger Federer, would have known immediately that Michael wasn't truly a friend. LOL! I wonder how much the dislike of the name dropper stems from jealousy. If someone is a big fan of Roger Federer then they might be jealous of this relationship and choose to dislike Michael because of it.
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