DRESS THE PARTtoWalktheWalk12The Artful Ordinary
Enclothed cognition and its impact on your actions and successBy Carl RichardsThe way we dress affects theway we feel. And the waywe feel affects our ability toget stuff done and influence people.Call it superficial if you want, but researchershave a different name forthe link between what we wear andhow we feel: enclothed cognition.Let me explain with a story.On a recent trip to New York, I woremy favorite pair of boots. I wear theseboots everywhere, and for the lastfew years, I neglected them.So when I got to La GuardiaAirport a bit early for myflight, I decided it wastime to show my trustyboots some love.I found the shoeshinestand and sat down.The man took onelook at my boots andsaid, “This will be thehardest project of the day.”He got to work, and a short timelater it looked like I was wearingnew boots. But as nice as my bootsappeared, what really surprised mewas how much better I felt.Now, I usually don’t care all thatmuch about what I wear. Just ask mywife. So it sounds silly that a simpleshoeshine changed my mood. Butit did. The simple act of getting myboots polished made me feel better.It turns out my experience matchesthe results of a study published inLeft: Clarissa Keller,nursing student atUW-Madison, posesin her white coat.Students who wore adoctor’s white coat toperform different tasksmade half as many errorsas students who woreregular clothes.2012 by Professor Adam D. Galinskyand Hajo Adam. They conductedthree experiments to determinehow what we wear impacts the waywe feel. They used a well knownpiece of clothing to test their theory:a doctor’s white lab coat.In one of the experiments, studentswho wore a doctor’s white coat toperform different tasks made half asmany errors as students who woreregular clothes. That’s right. Studentswho dressed like doctors were lesslikely to make an error — eventhough the tasks assignedin the study had nothingto do with medicine.The other two experimentsshowed similarresults, and we nowhave what’s known asenclothed cognition.For anyone who seespeople as part of the jobor wants to influence thebehavior of others, the way wedress does matter. So let’s not kidourselves. First, people judge us, atleast in part, by how we dress. Second,what we wear affects how wefeel about ourselves.It reminds me of another story, onefrom my early career as a financialadviser. I asked a good friend ofmine, a doctor, how I should dress.He said, “You should dress sharply.Wear a jacket and tie at the veryleast, and preferably a suit.”I thought, “That’s so lame. If peopleneed a suit and tie to trust me, Idon’t want those kinds of people asclients.” My doctor friend then toldme, “Can you imagine if I showedup in my running clothes at the lab?People are expecting someone in awhite lab coat, so why give themone more hurdle to jump throughbefore they trust me?”One other reason for dressing thepart: When we’re getting ready toperform a task, a good deal of thework starts with putting ourselvesin the right place mentally. For instance,when I dress up to give a talk,it reminds me that I’m there to performan important function. Peoplehave paid money to see me in person,and I need to “show up,” bothphysically and mentally, to show respect.Dressing nicely matches theirexpectations and it makes me feelgood. Both things help me performbetter as a speaker.It would be easy to dismiss this asshallow or silly. But for the nextweek, try giving yourself permissionto think about what you wear andhow it makes you feel, so you’re puttingyour best foot (or boot) forwardat all times. We even have a fancyname for it now. It’s science!YOU13
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