Abstract
If Dwayne Andrews emailed you to ask for information on local sports team mascots would you reply? A new study suggests that, in that scenario, if you too were an Andrews or a Dwayne (and particularly if you were another Dwayne Andrews), then the chances of your replying are greater [Oates, K. and Wilson, M. (2002) Proc. R. Soc. London B Biol. Sci. 269, 105–109]. The researchers set up 223 fictitious e-mail accounts using permutations of common and uncommon names. The sports mascot query was sent from these accounts to around 3000 people. The reply rate was about 2% for recipients sharing no names with the sender, compared with 12% for recipients sharing both names. The researchers favour an evolutionary explanation for their findings as a shared name suggests shared genes, or kinship. HJB
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