The explanation is that as is true for most Americans, authority figures included my middle name when disciplining me as a child. The middle name is associated with guilt, and this subconsciously perseveres into adulthood. Note that the effect might be limited to U.S. consumers. The researchers did not see it in study participants from India, but did observe it with American participants.
When consumers were given a form with their full name on it, they were less likely to say they’d spend money on a “fun pair of headphones.” When a different set of consumers was shown how their full name would appear on a gift card, they became more likely to choose the Subway one instead of a Dairy Queen one. When asked to imagine how their full name would look when engraved on a bottle, that set of consumers was more likely to favor the bottle holding a water-based drink rather than a sugary drink. Comparisons were to study participants asked to consider a first-last rather than first-middle-last name format.
The effect could be used to nudge people toward making better consumption choices at retail and beyond. For instance, when a health care provider induces guilt in a patient for noncompliance with instructions, the patient builds respect for and satisfaction with the professional’s technical expertise and communication skills, according to studies at University of Northern British Columbia. This was true for nagging about medication regimen adherence, maintaining lifestyle changes, and keeping appointments. Patients expect negative regard from doctors about noncompliance. Calling the patient by their full name would help call up the guilt.
On the other hand, use of the first name personalizes the selling message by referring to a characteristic of the consumer. Researchers at Universiteit Leuven in Belgium found that across languages and cultures, people’s self-esteem is heightened at least a bit not only when their name is used, but also when they are shown or given products with brand names starting with the first letter in their own name.
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