You are what you eat, and now, apparently, you are what you wear.
A new study from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has
discovered that workplace clothes do much more than make you look sharp or
change how others perceive you. In fact, it changes the way you perceive
yourself and how you perform.
In this study, a group of participants were given simple white lab coats
(something that a doctor or scientist would wear) and asked to perform the same
test as the regularly clothed group. Those in the lab coats made half as many
mistakes as the people dressed normally.
Researchers suggest that white lab coats are associated with professions that
display higher levels of care and attentiveness, and that’s how this select
group of participants performed.
In the past, we’ve heard of studies in which simply changing your body language
can make you feel more confident and powerful, and in many ways, this study is
an extension of this. Wearing the right clothes not only gives others the
impression that you’re handling business, but it convinces you, too, and that’s
why there’s an improvement in performance.
