Jozef Nuttin (1933–2014) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

psychologist who discovered the

name-letter effect The name-letter effect is the tendency of people to prefer the letters in their name over other letters in the alphabet. Whether subjects are asked to rank all letters of the alphabet, rate each of the letters, choose the letter they prefer out ...

, the strong preference people have for letters in their own name. The idea for the

psychological experiment Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...

to assess if there is an effect came to him in around 1978 when he noticed he liked car license plates that contained letters of his name. He was a scientist working for the Laboratorium for

Experimental Psychology Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...

, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, a lab he had founded in 1963. In 1985 he published his name-letter research. He and others have since found the effect independent of language. After a few years of relative obscurity, this effect is now used in psychological tests as a measure of

implicit self-esteem Implicit self-esteem refers to a person's disposition to evaluate themselves in a spontaneous, automatic, or unconscious manner. It contrasts with ''explicit self-esteem'', which entails more conscious and reflective self-evaluation. Both explicit ...

. Nuttin died in 2014.

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Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuttin, Jozef Belgian psychologists Academic staff of KU Leuven