Can dressing up make you smarter? The answer might surprise you
Most people will agree that dressing up probably makes you look smarter. But what if I told you that it goes beyond looks. What if I told you that throwing on your best threads can nudge your intelligence and performance up a few points? Hard to believe? Read on…
Do clothes make the person?
Have you ever seen a teenage boy who usually wears nothing but t-shirts, jeans or sweat pants don a suit for graduation or prom? What do you notice? Does he stand taller, walk with more poise or act more politely? Now, think back to the first time you got dressed in formal wear? How did your behaviour change? It might be true that clothing does not make the man or woman, but it definitely has an influence on how that man or woman behaves.
From posing to clothing: embodied cognition to enclothed cognition
Perhaps you are familiar with the concept of power poses. The idea was popularized by Amy Cuddy in her TED Talk and book about how our physical posture affects our mood, confidence, and performance. This concept is part of a broader field of psychology called embodied cognition. But now, research is going in a new and interesting direction.
While Cuddy’s work is couched in the study of how our physical posture affects our performance, work is also going on in a field described as enclothed cognition—how our clothes affect our performance. And the results from the research are both surprising and fascinating. But first, let us clarify what enclothed cognition is not.
Abracadabra or high-tech fabrics? Probably not
In case you are wondering, no, there is no magic in the insole of those designer shoes. Although the price tag might make more sense if there was. And no, this is not about some new hi-tech fabric that stimulates the problem-solving centers of your brain. Maybe in the next Bond movie.The brain is of course involved, but in a much more subtle way as we will see in this article.For a clearer picture, let us look at what two scientists from one important research study did to uncover the phenomenon of enclothed cognition.
What's so special about a white coat?
In the experiment, the scientists, Drs. Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky split their subjects into three groups. Two of the groups were given white coats to wear before taking a test. The third group served as the control group. They were not given white coats.
The tests were designed to assess the subjects’ attention abilities. The reasoning of the scientists was that those groups wearing the white coats would perform better since white coats are associated with scientific work and, therefore, attention to detail. But there was a twist.
Even though both groups got identical white coats, one group was told they were putting on a doctor’s coat while the other group was told they were putting on a painter’s coat. This detail revealed an interesting psychological dynamic as the results showed.
The Results
The group that did not wear any coats showed no increase in their performance on tests. No surprises there. But here’s the interesting part – there was no increase in performance in the group that wore white coats that they thought were painter’s coats either.The only group that performed better was the group that wore the white coats and believed they were doctor’s lab coats. This led the researchers to remark:
The influence of clothes thus depends on wearing them and their symbolic meaning.
Hmmm... But how can this work for you and I?
How to use clothes to make you smarter
How do you take the rubber-soled shoes of enclothed cognition and hit the road running? Taking from the literature, there appear to be two key components.
Choose clothes that signify the abilities you want to demonstrate
You must have an association already established in your brain of what kind of clothes reflect the skills or abilities you want to perform. This appears to be crucial as demonstrated by the lab coat vs painter frocks.
Put them on and get to work
Of course, there are probably limitations. Growing a moustache, wearing a three-piece suit, smoking a pipe and styling your hair like smoke coming from a chimney will not give you the IQ of Albert Einstein. But what it might do is help put you in a more resourceful state to find a creative solution to a problem you are trying to solve.This may seem like a mental sleight of hand, but any tool that will help you produce better work is at least worth considering. And if it has the bonus of making you look good, all the better.
Dress up to smart up – give it a try
Go ahead and give it try. For most of us, formal wear is closely associated with authority and intelligence so you might want to dress it up in a full suit or a smart suit jacket and dress slacks next time you have an important business meeting or presentation.
On the other hand, a skirt suit is probably not going to put you in the right state of mind to repaint your kitchen. In this case, a white coat might be better—just not a lab coat.
A good reason to look the part
Since learning about enclothed cognition, I have been dressing more deliberately – not for show but for smarts. It is hard to measure the effects but I personally feel more mentally resourceful when I have thrown on the right hat for the right work so to speak.
As the research suggests, and as your own personal experience might support, how we are dressed influences our behaviour. Now we know it also influences our intelligence. For me, I think it’s a win-win. And I’ll take all the help I can get thank you very much. What about you?
Till the next article, look your best, do your best and be your best :)
