Relation between Surname and Success: Analytical Essay

Does surname predict success?

Introduction:

A surname initial is not only a simple alphabet but also a success prediction. Names are always listed in alphabetical order for fair reason, which conversely leads to discrimination. This alphabetical discrimination subconsciously has a great impact on social life, whose influences are always negative. It is suggested that ordering is important and that over-reliance on alphabetical orderings can be harmful. This phenomenon is prominent in the field of economics. By literature review and quantity analysis, using typical statistics collected from economics departments, this essay outlines the relationship between surname initial and success, and try to further explains the cause and effect of the relationship.

Analysis:

The relationship between your name and success seems quite metaphysical. In moral education, one’s success is closely related to his or her efforts, diligence and talent. Along with a good opportunity, success is on your doorstep. However, there are abundant researches identifying some external characteristics, like gender, race and so on, that influence people’s career success，which is more apparent for understanding. Costello (2005) states the fact that professional success Is related to gender, race and class. Her research showed that the disproportionate success of white men can be explained by their good performance at school and swift acquirement of appropriate professional identities, while others suffered from underperformance and identity dissonance.

As for name and success, their relationship is underlying. This is caused by alphabetical discrimination to some extent, which is prominent in economics departments. In academia, the vast majority of scientific disciplines rely on the contribution-based norm, like psychology, with only very few disciplines relying predominantly on the alphabetical norm (most notably economics and mathematics) (Weber 2018). We try to find a scientific explanation for the reason why surname initials can lead to academic success.

According to an analysis of Einav and Yariv (2007), faculty who have earlier surname initials, are more likely to get tenure at top economics department, be fellows of the Econometric Society, or even receive the Clark Medal and the Nobel Prize. In their experiment, the experimental sample is all faulty of top 35 economics department in the United States, and the “control group” is all faculty of 35 U.S psychology departments. The significant variable is whether co-authorships are placed in alphabetical order or not in these two groups.

Furthermore, noticeably and statistically, the better the economics department are, the prominent this “alphabetical discrimination” is. As the figure1 shown below, with the enlargement of the sample, from top5 economics departments to top35 departments, the gap between the tenured cure and the untenured cure is gradually narrowing. The same situation also happens in ES fellows or not ES fellows group and prize-winners or not prize-winners group.

Cumulative Distributions of Surname Initials in Economics by Tenure Status

To be more rigorous, considering that there is the influence of name trend preference and some foreign names (Jewish, Indian and other Asian) are more likely to have initials later in the alphabet, the experiment controls for the year economists obtained the PHD, the American nationality and the name origin. And the result stays the same.

As for the control group, there is smaller and insignificant relationship between last name and tenured status. And with the sample enlarging, there is also no obvious continuity relation as economics departments between tenured curve and untenured curve, positively or negatively. In psychology, surname initial seems to have no important consequences on academic success.

Therefore, what are the causes and effects of the relationship between surname and success in economics departments?

Academic success is greatly influenced by publication record (Einav & Yariv 2007). In economics, the names of co-authored articles are placed in alphabetical order. According to the data collected from authority journals, like the American Economic Review (AER), Econometrica and so on, there are about 88 percent of multi-authored papers, last names of author were placed in alphabetical order. Moreover, the number of multi-authored papers is substantially rising in recent years. In contrast, the convention of listing co-authors by contribution rather than by alphabet in psychology. In stereotype, the early order represents the importance. And as Professor Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire points out, we’re used to associating things at the top of a list as winners, “Over time, it wouldn’t surprise me if you had this psychological effect.” Besides, it is quite common to mention only the first author and then to use “et al.” for the rest. It is reasonable that authors whose surname initials at the back of alphabet refuse to collaborate with more than three authors in one paper. The magnitudes found are quite sizeable. For example, the opportunity of A-surname people to get a tenure in top10 departments is 26% higher than Z-surname people. The number of downloads for A-surname authors are about 60% higher than Z-surname authors. Matthias Weber argues there is convincing evidence that ordering alphabetically discriminates against authors whose names appear late in the alphabet, and has real implications for the number of collaborations they are inclined to enter into. Sequencing citation in alphabetical order is used to make fair leads to alphabetical discrimination in economics.

The deficiency of the experiment its limitation to economics departments in the United States. But the result can be generalized to some extent. To verify this result, some statistics are collected from alumni who have published paper in top30 economics departments in Europe.

Surname initials of alumni in top30 economics department in Europe

As figure2 shown above, former surname initials occur a high proportion in all three pies. And middle alphabets group share almost equal proportions with later alphabets group, even later group contains almost twice more alphabets. What’s more, former group plays a more distinguish role in top5 economics departments than in top30 departments, which means that alphabetical discriminant is more prominent in better departments, Therefore, the simple statistical result is consistent with the analysis of Einav and Yariv, despite different demography and nationality.

From the perspective of my view, however, the biggest flaw of the conclusion is that the experiment ignored the population basis. That is, the proportion of a certain surname initial. If there are one in two people whose surname initial is A, its success rate must be considerable high. For example, the surname Li, with a population of about 95.3 million, is also the most popular surname in China today.

Therefore, it is not placed in the top of the alphabet but has a high success rate.

There is a suggestion for alphabetical discrimination. List co-authors according to their contribution like many other discipline, or list names randomly with an explanation footnote if they have same contribution to the paper.

However, the influence of alphabetical discrimination can never be underestimated. From school to society, alphabetism will be with us all life time. Professor Jeffrey Zax and graduate student Alexander Cauley (2017) of the Department of Economics found that the coincidence details of surnames may affect the outcome of life. People whose names are in the second half of the letter are negatively affected – a situation that can start at an early age. Teachers will unconsciously pay more attention to the students whose names are on the top of the name list. Even two students have nearly same academic performance, the one whose surname initial at the front of alphabet will be automatically designated as more outstanding than the other one. In a study published in the review of Economics of Education Review, researchers looked at the relationship between the alphabet position of surnames of more than 90000 Czech students and their chances of admission to competitive schools. They found that although students with lower surnames in the alphabet tend to get higher test scores in general. When they apply for university, they are always on the margin of being admitted or not, because higher surnames with same academic performance are always well-positioned. The same situations will repeatedly happen in job-seeking and early career.

Conclusion:

Alphabetical discrimination is widespread in society. In academia, economics is a typical example. People with higher surname initials are more likely to get academic success in economics, which is caused by ranking co-authorship in alphabetical order. Names top-listed will attract more attention by readers, let alone some names appeared later will be simplified as “et al”. The dilemma is increasingly outstanding with more multi-authored articles publishing. Despite that the experiment ignored the population basis, alphabetical discrimination is inevitable. However, it is believed that this alphabetical discrimination can be diminished by ranking in relative contribution. And this conclusion can be generalized in school and society.

Reference:

1. San Antonio Express-News. (2019). 13 surprising ways your name affects your success. [online] Available at: https://www.mysanantonio.com/lifestyle/slideshow/13-surprising-ways-your-name-affects-your-success-114795.php [Accessed 29 Nov. 2019].
2. librarylearningspace.com. (2019). Alphabetical name ordering is discriminatory and harmful to collaborations – librarylearningspace.com. [online] Available at: http://librarylearningspace.com/alphabetical-name-ordering-discriminatory-harmful-collaborations/ [Accessed 29 Nov. 2019].
3. Cauley, A. and Zax, J. (2018). Alphabetism: The Effects of Surname Initial and the Cost of Being Otherwise Undistinguished. SSRN Electronic Journal.
4. Chamary, J. (2019). The Name Game: how names spell success in life and love. [online] BBC Science Focus Magazine. Available at: https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/the-name-game-how-names-spell-success-in-life-and-love/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2019].
5. Costello, C. (2005). Professional identity crisis. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press.
6. Kadel, A. and Walter, A. (2015). Do scholars in Economics and Finance react to alphabetical discrimination?. Finance Research Letters, 14, pp.64-68.
7. Najjar, M. (2018). The Arabic Alphabetical Letter A Psychological and Sociological Reading. International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, 4(4), pp.247-250.
8. Alumni in top5 A-G H-N O-Z 253.0 182.0 191.0
9. Alumni in top15 A-G H-N O-Z 420.0 334.0 362.0
10. Alumni in top30 A-G H-N O-Z 615.0 519.0 549.0