People with conventional names live longer, says study
Posted on: 30/Mar/2016 9:48:35 AM
A study published in the journal Explorations in Economic History has said that people with a conventional name may live longer than those with modern names. According to researchers, this holds truer foe those who belong to minority communities. The study was conducted by those in the Michigan State University in the US.
Researchers examined three million death certificates in the United States from 1802 to 1970. The analysis showed that Black men who had racially distinctive names such as Elijah or Moses lived, on an average, a year longer than their peers. Say the researchers, A number of studies indicate that modern black names can act as a burden, whereas our findings show that historical black names conveyed a large advantage over a persons lifetime.
Historical death certificates from four states were analysed. These states were Alabama, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. The analysis was based on previous establishment of the fact that there exists a set of distinctive names given to Black men in the early 20th century. The names ranged from Abraham to Booker to Isaac.
The researchers say, (We) examined mortality rates among men with those names. (We) found that having a distinctive Black name added more than one year of life relative to other Black males. A whole additional year on their lives, in mortality terms, is remarkable. Many of the distinctive names come from the Bible and possibly denote empowerment. One theory is that men with these Old Testament names may have been held to a higher standard in academic and other activities, even implicitly, and had stronger family, church or community ties. These stronger social networks could help a person weather negative events throughout life.
