Forming Impressions from English and French First Names: Is there an In-Group Effect in Québec?

Abstract

Using the Name Connotation Profile, English Canadian and French Canadian university students rated their impressions of people with English or French first names. Both the English and French students formed a more favorable impression of people who had names from their own linguistic group. These results are consistent with social identity theory, according to which people define themselves in part by groups to which they belong, with the contact hypothesis, according to which people feel more positively towards those with whom they have interacted more, and perhaps with the mere exposure effect, according to which liking for an object increases with the frequency with which it is presented.