We all take a little extra effort to look nice for special occasions. But for the most, people remain conflicted between wanting to dress up and feeling guilty about taking the time to focus on clothes. Science now suggests that how we dress may just be the difference between giving ourselves the extra edge in our professional and personal lives. And yes, that applies to men too.
We hear sayings like “dress for the job you want; not the job you have” and “look good, feel good” all the time. Most people don’t really believe in them, but we try to match our attire to the occasion nevertheless. The good news is that research into the impact of clothes on behavior now suggests that there may actually be a grain of truth in these sayings. Science says that the clothes we wear affect our behavior, attitudes, personality, mood, confidence, and even the way we interact with others. This is “Enclothed Cognition“.
The term Enclothed Cognition is used to describe the effect that our clothes seem to have on various psychological processes like emotions, self evaluations, attitudes, and interpersonal interactions. Clothes affect our behavior and our moods because of the symbolic meaning that we (as a society) ascribe to different types of attire.
We consider some clothes to be powerful, some to be fun, and so on. We even evaluate people whom we have just met based on their clothes and the occasion. It would seem that we also evaluate ourselves and our roles based on what we are wearing at a particular time; because of the way they make you feel. This means that the experience of wearing something subtly affects our attitudes and our choice of behavior.