• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Your initials spell your doom?

M

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 18, 2002
Messages
19,407
Apparently not:

What's in a name

Early demise of the theory of deadly initials

Marc Abrahams
Tuesday March 28, 2006
The Guardian

The great initial discovery of 1999 - that a man's monogram could cause his early death was dismaying. But maybe it was all a mistake. A second, very careful look, carried out by two sceptical economists, says it just ain't so.

In 1999, a blockbuster report called What's in a Name: Mortality and the Power of Symbols gave people the willies. It said: "Individuals with 'positive' initials (for example, ACE, VIP) might live longer than those with "negative" initials (eg PIG, DIE)." Three psychologists at the University of California, San Diego, discovered this by poring through death records, and gathering and crunching numbers. They then published a warning in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

Nicholas Christenfeld, David Phillips and Laura Glynn were deadly serious about it. "Males with positive initials live 4.48 years longer" than most people, they explained, "whereas males with negative initials die 2.80 years younger".

They explained the mechanism:

"Parents might fail to notice that the initials they are about to give a child could have negative connotations. This oversight suggests that there may be many offspring who have been inadvertently assigned initials with negative connotations. These may cause individuals not to think well of themselves, and they may have to endure teasing and other negative reactions from those around them."

Gary Smith, an economics professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, teamed up with his student Stilian Morrison to give this a good, hard look-see.

The Christenfeld study compared the ages of all the people who died in a particular year. But, say Smith and Morrison, if - instead - you look at the lifespans of all the people who were born in a particular year, the pattern doesn't show up. Also, they say, if you use a more complete list of "good" and "bad" words, the effect doesn't appear.

If Smith and Morrison are correct, the initials big bang theory may have died at the untimely age of six years.
Click to expand...

http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekl ... 72,00.html
 
My initials spell something unpronouncable. What does that mean? Am I doomed?
 
RAT

Cincinnati's most successful political family, the Robert A. Tafts (RATs), have done very well by themselves in the United States Senate and Ohio governorships, thank you very much.
 
My bf's initials spell JALR, and he worked as a prison guard for a number of years.
 
FAT ASS

I spent less than two minutes randomly poking into the Cincinnati residential telephone directory and found a number of ASSes and FATs.
 
Re: RAT

OldTimeRadio said:
Cincinnati's most successful political family, the Robert A. Tafts (RATs), have done very well by themselves in the United States Senate and Ohio governorships, thank you very much.
Click to expand...

Rats are very fearless, resillient, adaptable and opportunist animals, who are highly successful in areas where other animals often aren't...
 
I have the same initials as Multiple Schlerosis :(

Thankfully i haven't seen any of the 'Fight MS' T-shirts around for a few years now...
 
My initials, JLC, are unpronouncable. So are my boyfriend's; CTR.
I guess that means we'll die mysterious deaths, disappearing into an unknowable void of lovecraftian proportions! :roll:
 
my initials are an egyptian god

i've not noticed anything egyptian or god-like about me though myself.
don't even go on for pyramid selling
 
Oh hell, so I was akin to a bread product (BAP) - eaten in someway perhaps? Certainly not a baker. Since my marriage I'm now a BAR so death by alcohol perhaps :)
 
My initials. C.O.C. Hmm.


Ooh. As a point of possible mild interest, we've just realised that my partner's initials spell out their first name (or at least the most common short version of their first name, which is what they go by in daily life). As far as we know it wasn't deliberate.
 
Mine are NDB. Or, er, NB. Cos I really don't like my middle name. So does that mean special attention should be paid towards me? I'm not particularly special in anyway, if I'm honest....

But my Dad has the same initials. So I really get irritated when someone phones up and asks for Mr. N. B.....

"Ok, which one?"

"Umm........ there's two of you?"

"Well spotted."
 
My initials used to be CPRC, which my sister said made me sound like an incontinent Chinaman. :roll:
 
Mine are PC and I worked at Scotland Yard for 15 years :lol: I did marry at one time and they changed to PS so it was a promotion for a while :lol:
 
My initials spell nothing but my name is a sentence and fits in with the main thing im good at...
Looks cheesy signing my name on a painting.
And always had the mic taken at school, drew it but forgot to colour it ha ha :x
 
Question!

My initials spell MM but after the year 2000 (a pivotal year a might add) I'm still here playing solitaire...

Being Scottish I sometimes add the "c" from my name making them MMc.

Will I check out in 2010?

Does the little "c" in my initials count as it's a small case and therefore not an initial?

mooks out
 
Mine spell S.A.T.

God, I hope no one sits on me! Of course, without the middle, they spell ST.
And I've nearly been run over at least a dozen times.
 
nickedoff12 said:
NRV...Nailed by a Recreational Vehicle?

Perhaps.
Click to expand...
Nervy?
The original report smells of consummate bullshit, anyway.

I'm JWH - another god?
 
nickedoff12 said:
NRV...Nailed by a Recreational Vehicle?

Perhaps.
Click to expand...
Or perhaps you'll be fighting off invasion by divine beings using giant bio-mechanical robot suits.
 
nickedoff12 said:
NRV...Nailed by a Recreational Vehicle?

Perhaps.
Click to expand...

id suggest "Not Related to Vincent" (Price)

or if you are

"Not Related to Victor" (Meldrew)

so its come true...

and there is always "New River Valley" (you dont live there by any chance)

and good old "Net Realizable Value" (financial term)

NRV was a type of tyre too i think :)
 
Cpt_Buggernuts said:
My initials. C.O.C. Hmm.
Click to expand...

at first look it may not sound so good, but having "Call Of Cthulhu" as initials must have some streetcred?
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Apparently not:

What's in a name

Early demise of the theory of deadly initials

Marc Abrahams
Tuesday March 28, 2006
The Guardian

The great initial discovery of 1999 - that a man's monogram could cause his early death was dismaying. But maybe it was all a mistake. A second, very careful look, carried out by two sceptical economists, says it just ain't so.

In 1999, a blockbuster report called What's in a Name: Mortality and the Power of Symbols gave people the willies. It said: "Individuals with 'positive' initials (for example, ACE, VIP) might live longer than those with "negative" initials (eg PIG, DIE)." Three psychologists at the University of California, San Diego, discovered this by poring through death records, and gathering and crunching numbers. They then published a warning in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research.

Nicholas Christenfeld, David Phillips and Laura Glynn were deadly serious about it. "Males with positive initials live 4.48 years longer" than most people, they explained, "whereas males with negative initials die 2.80 years younger".

They explained the mechanism:

"Parents might fail to notice that the initials they are about to give a child could have negative connotations. This oversight suggests that there may be many offspring who have been inadvertently assigned initials with negative connotations. These may cause individuals not to think well of themselves, and they may have to endure teasing and other negative reactions from those around them."

Gary Smith, an economics professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, teamed up with his student Stilian Morrison to give this a good, hard look-see.

The Christenfeld study compared the ages of all the people who died in a particular year. But, say Smith and Morrison, if - instead - you look at the lifespans of all the people who were born in a particular year, the pattern doesn't show up. Also, they say, if you use a more complete list of "good" and "bad" words, the effect doesn't appear.

If Smith and Morrison are correct, the initials big bang theory may have died at the untimely age of six years.
Click to expand...

http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekl ... 72,00.html
Click to expand...

How can you have 6 letter initials like that?

I'm sure MAJM would spell my doom. :eek:
 
mine spell J.I.M. makes me wonder if Ill be taken out by a guy named jim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top