Want to Go into Politics? You Might Want Your Name to Match Your Face

If you've ever felt like your name did or didn't match your face, a new study is here that might back up your argument.

New research has found that people prefer names and faces that go together – i.e. round names like "Bob" and "Lou" and round faces – so much so that a well-matched name could snag a politician more votes.

Researchers investigated the "bouba/kiki effect, "which is "people's tendency to associate rounded objects with names that require rounding of the mouth to pronounce," according to a news release. The study appears Thursday in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, published by Springer.

A series of experiments made up the research. In the first, participants ranked suggested names which worked best with "overly exaggerated round or angular male caricaturated faces," according to a statement. They regularly matched up nine out of 10 round faces with so-called round names (George, Lou) and eight out of 10 angular faces with angular names (Pete, Kirk).

The study also found people liked someone more once they knew their name matched their face – and their opinion went sour if the name didn't match.

But what are the practical applications of such research? Look no further than a voting booth. Researchers used independent ratings for 158 U.S. Senate candidates regarding the roundness of their names and faces. Those who had matching names and faces had the upper hand.

"Finally, we show that such bias could have important practical consequences: An analysis of voting data reveals that senatorial candidates earn 10% more votes when their names fit their faces very well, versus very poorly," according to the study abstract.

"People's names, like shape names, are not entirely arbitrary labels," study author Jamin Halberstadt of the University of Otago in New Zealand said in a statement. Face shapes produce expectations about the names that should denote them, and violations of those expectations carry affective implications, which in turn feed into more complex social judgments, including voting decisions."

All this to say, the next time you have to name someone, you may want to choose judiciously.