The impact of gender orientation of names on individuals’ evaluation of impressions and interpersonal interaction

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00387

Abstract

Abstract:

Personal names have potential consequences for the way in which an individual is viewed and treated by others. This study examined the ratings of warmth and competence of gender-oriented names and explored the effects of individuals’ gender and name-gender orientation on impression formation and interpersonal interaction. The results showed that: (1) Feminine names were rated higher on warmth than masculine names, and masculine names were rated higher on competence than feminine names; (2) Individuals with gender-consistent names were considered to have the typical characteristics of their gender, and individuals with gender-inconsistent names were considered to have the characteristics of the opposite sex; (3) Participants intended to make friends with women whose names were consistent with their gender, and the perception of warmth completely mediated the effect of name-gender orientation on willingness to interact; (4) Participants preferred to finish difficult tasks with men whose names were consistent with their gender, and the perception of competence completely mediated the effect of name gender orientation on willingness to cooperate. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Key words: gender-oriented names, impression evaluation, warmth, competence, interpersonal interaction

ZUO Bin, LIU Chen, WEN Fangfang, TAN Xiao, XIE Zhijie. (2021). The impact of gender orientation of names on individuals’ evaluation of impressions and interpersonal interaction. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 53(4), 387-399.

Figures/Tables 6

Table 1 Means and standard deviations for ratings of men and women with masculine names and feminine names concerning warmth and competence of study 2

Individuals’ gender	Masculine names		Feminine names
Individuals’ gender	Warmth	Competence	Warmth	Competence
Men	4.98 ± 0.89	5.40 ± 0.75	4.95 ± 0.97	4.80 ± 1.14
Women	4.85 ± 0.99	5.32 ± 0.93	5.31 ± 0.96	5.26 ± 0.99

Figure 1. Participants’ judgements of men and women with masculine and feminine names on characteristics of warmth and competence. The error bars represent standard errors.
Note. *p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001,

Table 2 Means and standard deviations for ratings of men and women with masculine names and feminine names concerning warmth and competence in the context of social and task of study 3a and study 3b

Names & dimension	Study 3a (Social context)		Study 3b (Task context)
Names & dimension	Men	Women	Men	Women
Ratings of masculine name carriers on warmth	4.73 ± 0.98	4.47 ± 1.02	4.56 ± 0.97	4.55 ± 0.97
Ratings of masculine name carriers on competence	4.83 ± 1.00	4.97 ± 0.99	5.09 ± 1.10	5.27 ± 0.91
Ratings of feminine name carriers on warmth	4.78 ± 0.97	5.41 ± 0.80	4.85 ± 0.84	5.42 ± 0.81
Ratings of feminine name carriers on competence	4.49 ± 0.73	4.90 ± 0.78	4.70 ± 0.81	5.04 ± 0.95

Figure 2. Participants’ evaluation of men and women with masculine and feminine names on characteristics of warmth and competence in the context of social and task. The error bars represent standard errors.

Figure 3. Mediation model with name gender orientation as the independent variable, trait warmth and trait competence as the mediators, and willingness to make friends as the dependent variable: Experiment 3a.
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Figure 4. Mediation model with name gender orientation as the independent variable, trait warmth and trait competence as the mediators, and participants’ willingness to cooperate as the dependent variable: Experiment 3b.
*p < .05, ***p < .001.

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