The Theory of Deadly Initials (opens in new tab)

In 1999, University of California psychologist Nicholas Christenfeld and his colleagues reviewed thousands of state death certificates and found that males with negative initials (D.I.E., P.I.G., R.A.T.) had died 2.80 years younger than matched controls. Males with positive initials (H.U.G., W.I.N., V.I.P.) had lived 4.48 years longer. Why? “At present, the best available explanation for these findings is that they are due to the symbolic power of one’s name. It seems unlikely that a person w...