The research, carried out by psychologists Nicholas Christenfeld, David Phillips and Laura Glynn, and published in the paper "What's in a Name: Mortality and the Power of Symbols", suggested that men with "negative" sets of initials (e.g.
DIE or PIG) have, on average, a shorter lifespan than those with "positive" initials (e.g.
The average increase in life expectancy for a set of positive initials was claimed to be 4.48 years, while the average decrease in life expectancy for negative initials was claimed as 2.8 years.
This is attributed to stress from teasing and lower self-worth in individuals with "deadly" initials.
In 2005, the hypothesis was investigated by Gary Smith, an economics professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California, and Stilian Morrison, a student there.