Z Day

What the day is

Z Day is observed on January 1. The idea is that people whose names begin with Z, who spend their lives at the end of every list, go first for one day.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented. The grievance behind it is better supported than it sounds.

Alphabetical ordering is treated as neutral because it is arbitrary, and arbitrary is not the same as harmless. In academic economics, where authors are conventionally listed alphabetically rather than by contribution, researchers found that faculty with surnames earlier in the alphabet were more likely to receive tenure at leading departments and more likely to collect the profession's major honors. The effect appears in economics and not in fields that order authors by contribution, which is what makes the explanation convincing.

It reaches into classrooms too. Work examining large volumes of online assignment grading found that students earlier in an alphabetically ordered list received slightly higher marks than those at the end, with the gap consistent with graders becoming more tired and more terse as they worked down.

The best-established version is on ballots. Candidates listed first gain a measurable advantage over otherwise identical candidates listed lower, an effect large enough that many jurisdictions now rotate or randomize the order by precinct specifically to cancel it.

The common thread is that attention is a finite resource spent in order. Anything ranked by name inherits a bias nobody chose and nobody notices.

How to take part

• Reverse the list. If you run a meeting, a roll call or a rota, start from the bottom today.
• Randomize rather than alphabetize anything where order confers advantage.
• Grade or review in a different sequence each time, and take breaks.
• Check whether your own systems sort by name out of habit rather than reason.
• Let the Z at the end of the register go first, just once.