Does Not Remembering People's Names Really Make You Less Likeable?

15 Mini Things That Can Instantly Make You Less Likable - But many people still keep doing these

A recent story on Medium (linked above) described 15 mini things that supposedly can make you instantly less likable. While many of the 15 items listed are highly questionable and debatable it was #5 that really gave me pause. It stated that not remembering people’s names makes you less likeable. The reason given was that this indicates an overall lack of interest in other people. Whether or not this assertion is true is an interesting and open question. I happen to disagree and do not believe memory of names has anything at all to do with likability however, that discussion will have to wait. A much more impactful (in a bad way) aspect of the issue has to do with the so called “research” cited as supporting evidence of the opinion (which was asserted as fact). The article from Science Daily News is not in any sense of the word science or research, nor does it provide references to any actual science or research. It is an article in which a psychology professor at Kansas State gives his opinion about memory. He believes that one’s level of interest in a given topic improves their ability to remember things about said topic. He then tells a story of how he first came to formulate this Nobel prize winning hypothesis by playing a game with his students in which he amazed them all with his knowledge of world capitals. He realized he remembered these capitals not because he was interested in Geography but because of his love of collecting stamps. Obviously, his interest in stamp collecting is what made him so good at remembering world capitals. And so, unless you are stupid, you can obviously see from this story that people who do not remember names well have less interest in other people than those who do. And of course this then makes them less likable. OMG. Head slap. Groan. Professor Einstein then gives us all a tip for how we can better remember names with an example. “If somebody’s last name is Hefty and you notice they’re left-handed, you could remember lefty Hefty.” Thank God I now can remember all of the tens of billions of people with the very common last name of Hefty. Gheezus Mary Jane Christie and Joseph Mgillicutty, what a load of BS. Difficulty in remembering names may or may not have anything to do with one’s level of “interest in other people” (whatever that means) but spouting off crazy shit and calling it science or research is why more and more people think science is crap. Go run some experiments, collect some data, survey the literature, publish some papers, then talk to me about your findings. Telling me stories of your youthful misadventures in stamp collecting is less than helpful and in fact is hurtful to the cause of science. I can’t be too hard on the hapless Professor as he likely had little idea how his quotes might come to be used, but I have no such sympathy for Science Daily News. Calling this kind of opinion blurb science is outrageous and plain stupid. I understand the urge to make science “interesting” and “accessible” for the common man. I try and do it all the time, often without much success. But this is pure garbage, total crap, unsubstantiated assertions made with zero data to back them up. Scientists are allowed to have opinions, I have plenty but they are no more or less valuable than any other persons opinion. To suggest they are, as this article does, does a grave disservice to all of science and all scientists. Thanks Science Daily News. Great job. Dickheads.