Alphabetical Prejudice

In one intriguing study, California researchers analyzed death records to find out whether there was any correlation between people's initials and how long they lived. They divided their subjects' initials into positive and negative groups. The good-initial group included ACE, WIN, WOW, and VIP; the bad contained RAT, BUM, SAD, and DUD. Then they matched up initials with lifespans and looked for any correlation. The results were stunning (and also hotly debated): A person's initials actually may influence the time and cause of his or her death. "A symbol as simple as one's initials can add four years to life or subtract three years," the researchers wrote. They speculated that bad initials were irritants, or stressors, which over the course of a person's life can add up and contribute to health problems. 

In related news, last names that begin with letters occurring later in the alphabet can be associated with a phenomenon that Scottish researchers call "alphabetical prejudice." They found that when medical teams in a brain-injury rehabilitation center met to discuss patients, people with surnames that came early in the alphabet tended to receive three to four minutes' more attention than people with names later in the alphabet. This difference may be critical. Said the investigators, "more time devoted to the early cases clearly results in a better quality of care."