Why do people mistake the names of relatives?

If you've mistakenly named your brothers and sisters or even accidentally called a family member by the name of the dog you adopted, then rest assured that this phenomenon is so common that Duke University (USA) ) recently conducted a study to explain.

People often say 2-6 words per second, meaning there are many opportunities for mistakes. According to Geology Professor Professor Geoff Goodman of Long Island University (USA), before the mind is censored, people speak out their thoughts unconsciously. However, this confusion follows a rule.

The survey was conducted on more than 1,700 people who showed that calling a person by name of a person or thing often happens in the same type of relationship. For example, we are more likely to confuse a family member's name with another member's name, mistaking this friend's name for another friend.

We are less likely to confuse the names of different types of relationships - for example, calling the wrong name of a brother or sister, following a friend's name or calling a colleague after a family member.

Scientists say the wrong name is no coincidence.(Photo: Lennygray).

David Rubin, a member of the research team, said: "We are showing a cognitive mistake, but it is not accidental."

The study also found that the phonetic similarity between names sometimes contributes to confusion, but the level is lower than the type of relationship. Names that start or end with similar sounds like Michael and Mitchell are more likely to be confused. Names with the same vowel sounds like John and Bob are the same.

Meanwhile, the physical similarity (body shape, face, gender .) between people is not an important factor that makes us confused. That is, parents will still misbehave their children 's names even if they have nothing alike and gender is different. These cognitive mistakes are often attributed to aging . However, scientists reveal that students are the ones who miss the most.

One interesting thing about the study is that people even confuse the names of family members with the name of the dog they raise, but never mistaken for their cat's name.

Scientists are not sure why everyone cannot be mistaken for cat names, probably because cats rarely respond when called names. They also note that this phenomenon may imply a unique relationship between people and dogs.

Samantha Deffler said: "I also raise cats and I love them, but it seems that our research is contributing to affirming the special relationship between people and dogs."