What’s in a name? Nominal kinship cues facilitate altruism.

In an age of instant communication, what is it that makes us choose to respond to one email over another and when are we more likely to offer help to a complete stranger? The answer is when we share the same name as the other person, according to new research published in the Royal Society’s journal Proceedings B. An analysis of responses to 2,960 emails by researchers at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, found that a shared name leads to a perceived connection with and positive attitude towards, the other person, that arises from a feeling of shared ancestry – or kinship. The recent clamour by millions of people trying to access the UK Public Record Office’s 1901 census website bears this out. Our responses to people with the same name are also likely to be quicker and friendlier than when our names are different.