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Perceptions of the Brightness of Clothes on Level of Status
Lilian Tucker
Hanover College
PSY 344: Social Psychology
Winter 2013
Abstract
The study was designed to examine the perceptions individuals make on the brightness of clothes worn
by another, and related these to the person’s perceived status level. The hypothesis of the author was
that people will perceive individuals in darker colored clothes as having a higher status than those
dressed in lighter colors. The questionnaire featured 4 pictures of 2 men and 2 women dressed in
business attire of either a dark or light color. There were 2 versions of the survey providing a depiction
of either a dark outfit or a light outfit on each of the four pictures of individuals. Participants (N= 36) in a
between subjects design were asked to rate the individual presented in one of the four pictures on his or
her predicted income from 5 options. The results were as predicted in that individuals wearing darker
clothes were perceived as having a higher income level. All findings were significant (p<.001 for images
1,3,4 and p = .00162 for image 2), and should be taken into consideration. However, these results
should not be taken as proof and future research will need to be considered before being certain of the
results of the study below.
Perceptions of the Brightness of Clothes on Level of Status
It is well known that an individual’s response to a particular stimulus is determined not only by
their internal thought, but by a number of additional external forces, such as the outer appearance of that
stimulus. Let us focus our attention on a few variables about the dress of other persons that may
influence our perception of them.
Perhaps the outer appearance of someone may influence the way an individual perceives that
person. Johnson, Schofield, and Yurchisin (2002) did a study in which they recorded the qualitative
responses of women’s opinions on appearance and dress. These impressions sometimes included other
cues as well, such as accessories and smell. They concluded that personal preferences may influence
these women’s findings a great deal. However, it was made clear by their responses that the way a
person appeared externally influenced their perception of the other person’s character. While the degree
in manner to which they regarded the person may be questioned, the consistency in which the cited the
influence of clothing should be noted. They found that, out of 41 women, only one said that she was not
influenced by the outer appearance of another when forming the impression of another.
Ignoring the small differences in opinion on items like accessories and perfume, the women in
Johnson’s study did have something in common: most of the time they mentioned the outfits another
person wore when describing their opinion of them. Could clothing have an influence on people’s
perception of one another? It is important to note what it means exactly for clothes to influence a
person’s perception. Cosbey (2001) states that it is how much a person is favorably influenced by
clothing. Hamid (1968) had 21 men and 24 women rate pictures of female models in magazines on how
much those models represented a given personality trait. He found that clothing attire had a greater
influence on subject’s impressions than other accessory items, such as jewelry, shoes, and purses.
What might this interest in clothing indicate about personality? Lennon and Davis (1989)
analysed a lengthy list of previous findings on the effects of clothing on perceptions. They concluded
from these other studies that clothing does in fact have a strong influence on social cognition, that is, the
impressions we form concerning others. One of the theories they present as a possible rationale behind
people’s mental processes was impression formation and how people paid more attention to
appearance cues when analyzing a person, if the cues were dissimilar to their own. This indicates that
people regard others more positively if the appear similar to the individual’s own dress. Perhaps, one
can conclude, it is the reasoning above that when interviewing for a job, it is most appropriate to follow
certain guidelines to proper attire by wearing outfits that were reported as being more highly regarded
by interviewers. This idea is similar to that of Reid, Lancuba, and Bridget (1997), who performed a
study to determine is specific outfits lead to specific perceptions. They asked subjects to rate three
different types of outfits alternative, casual, and business attire to specific traits of behavior. They
found that subjects who were wearing the same types of clothes as those depicted in the survey at the
time of the study rated those individuals more positively. The authors attributed this to the subjects
desire to identify with the pictured individual.
TurnerBowker (2001) comments on how many lower class women struggle to find decent
business attire, and how this might be a contributing factor to their inability to find a suitable job. This is
just one of many example in which this theory can be applicable in daily life. In her study, Cosbey
(2001) had subjects rate their personality a 5point Likertscale and compared the data to how satisfied
they were with their own clothing. Those who rated high in sociability tended to show a high interest in
their attire, while those categorized themselves as rating low in sociability also ranked their satisfaction in
their attire low. Thus, not only do judge the appearance of others, but that of themselves. As Davis and
Lennon (1988) noted, judgments regarding others based on certain features are created generally in
regards to strangers. We do not seem to critique appearance of those we know, just as initial
impressions on someone new, and perhaps, according to Cosbey (2001), ourselves.
Now we have concluded that clothing may very well influence one’s perception of others, but
just what type of clothing? Vrij (1997) asked subjects to watch a video depicting an individual, in either
black or lighter clothing, threatening the the video recorder, which in turn threatened the viewer.
Aggressive behavior was rated higher by the observer when the threatening individual was dressed in
black clothing. Although the effect sizes were small, they still supported their conclusions about the
aggressive behavior. As noted, though, these findings would only be relevant in situations where
aggression is already displayed, such as in regards to potential criminals. This helps dispelled the idea of
a priest or a man in a tuxedo causing alarm every time they enter a room, since this obviously does not
occur in reality. However, the study does indicate how different shades of achromatic colors conjure
different effects in impression formation under certain circumstances.
Lois B. Wexner conducted a study in which he had subjects fill out a questionnaire in which they
were given a list of adjective, and were asked to identify a color(s) to each term (Wexner, 1954).
Certain colors were identified more with certain terms, such as red with excitingstimulating, yet some
colors did not significantly different on other ratings. He concluded that this may be due to an individual's
preference and the particular shade that was represented.
Vrij’s (1997) findings could further be explained by how color itself can have a major impact on
perception. Perhaps this is due to the mood that color triggers in our mind. Kaya and Epps (2004)
conducted a more openended study on color and its effect on mood. They asked subjects to record
their mood after viewing a color and then rated their answers as positive, negative, or neutral. Most
colors were reported positively above 60%. For achromatic shades, white was 61.2% positive, while
gray was only 19.4% positive and black only 7.1%.
There can be a problem when rating the influence of clothing. Davis and Lennon (1988)
discussed how many studies use either openended questions, which can pose a measuring problem, or
forcedchoice questions based on word choice, such as in Wexner’s (1954) study, which may lead a
priming effect where the subject thinks about a term that would not normally occur to them. Perhaps
then it would be best to measure the effects of clothing on perception in a different manner that is more
indirect.
It is clear, then, that the color of clothing has an effect on impression formation. More
specifically, darker clothing appears to viewed as more aggressive, according to Vrij (1997), and less
positive in comparison to other achromatic colors, according to Kaya and Epps (2004). How might the
darkness of outfits worn by others then affect us in our daily life?
The perceived social status of an individual becomes an important aspect that one judges
another, due to the fact that those with a higher status are generally regarded as having a higher income.
It is generally assumed that those who have more money have certain qualities that enabled them to
obtain their wealth, such as intelligence, responsibility, and competence. Those same qualities are highly
regarded in situations in which a person is being judged on how important they are or will be to others.
An example of this type of situation that most people will have to go through is a job interview. The
evidence above suggests the importance of color and outfits on impressions. By combining these
theories with Wexner’s (1954) findings that the color black was rated as powerful, strong, and masterful
at a 48% frequency among subjects suggest that individuals who wear darker outfits may be perceived
as holding a higher social status.
In the study discussed below, it was hypothesize that people will perceive individuals in darker
colored clothes as having a higher status than those dressed in lighter colors. Participants were asked to
fill out an online questionnaire depicting four individuals. After reading their rights as a participant, they
were asked to rate these individuals' annual income levels, ranging on a 7 point scale. There were two
copies of the survey depicting either a dark outfit or a light outfit on each of the four people depicted.
The questionnaire took roughly 5 minutes to complete. The objective of this study is to see whether
brightness has an influence on perception, particularly the level of income perceived by the subject.
Methods
Participants
The total number of participants who partook in the study totaled at 36. I obtained a
convenience sample from students that wished to receive extra credit in psychology course at Hanover
College.
72 percent of the participants were female, and 28 percent of the participants were male. The
demographics of participants were as follows: Caucasian 72.2 percent, African American 11.1 percent,
Hispanic 5.6 percent, percent, East Asian 5.6 percent, Arab 2.8 percent, and mixed 2.8 percent.
Average age was 20.14, ranging from 18 to 22.
Materials
The set of pictures collected from online catalogs of Macy’s and Men’s Wearhouse were
collected and the resulting questions were written by the author of the study. The method of research
was a betweensubjects design. There were two sets of surveys, each containing four pictures. In each
set, the same picture either represented an individual in a dark suit, or a light suit. Participants only filled
out one of the two surveys, depending on which one they were given. The first picture was that of a
Caucasian man in business attire. The second picture was also of a man, an AfricanAmerican in casual
attire. For pictures three and four, the same principle was used, in regards to a female, with the
exception of the AfricanAmerican woman wearing business attire and the Caucasian woman wearing
casual attire. This exception was made in order to avoid potential racial discrimination by presenting
only one race in a single category.
Each of these sets had two versions, in which the brightness of the attire changed between light
and dark. These pictures were presented on two different versions of a questionnaire, with each
participant looking at one version of each set (see Appendix A). Three pictures, the two men and the
woman in the business attire, changed from a black suit to a white suit. The picture of the woman in a
blouse depicted either light pink or maroon. All pictures focused on the upper body and had the torsos
facing the viewer, to give them a full view of the outfits. The pictures were in color, with only the
brightness of the outfits altered. There was a set of four, original pictures and four altered pictures. The
pictures depicting the two males and the AfricanAmerican female were altered from an original dark,
achromatic color (black), to a light achromatic color (white). The picture depicting the Caucasian female
was altered from an original dark, maroon color, to a light, salmon color. The pictures were 2 by 3
inches, ~200 x ~300 pixels.
After seeing each picture, they were asked to determine the income level of the man or woman.
If they did not know what types of employment offered certain incomes, a list of particular professions
and their average annual income level was presented above.
Procedure
A randomly generated list of student email addresses was generated through excel. From this
list, participants were sent an email and were asked to fill out an online study in order to partake in a
psychological experiment that involved critiquing photographs. At the beginning of each survey,
participants were informed that the study was about the perception of outfits on occupations. They were
informed that their answers would be collected in confidence and would not be read by anyone other
than the researcher. After completing the survey, a confirmation message was delivered to participants,
which debriefed them about the true nature of the study.They were then thanked for their participation,
and dismissed. The survey was administered between February 19, 2013 and March 16, 2013.
Results
There were two versions of the survey that participants were asked to fill out. Version A
depicted a dark color outfit on images 1 and 3, while images 2 and 4 depicted a light color outfit.
Version B depicted the same images in an opposing fashion, with the light and dark colored outfits
switched.
There was a significant difference between version A and version B for all images (see Table 1).
For image 1, t(31.76)=4.74, p<.001. On average, participants who viewed the image in version A
rated income of the individual depicted as $58,333.33, while those viewing the image in version B rated
income of the individual as $112,500.00. The significant difference for image 2 was t(33.79)=3.43, p
= .00162. Version A had income rated at $122,222.22, while version B had a predicted average
income of $71,527.78. In image 3, t(26.14)=5.31, p<.001. Participants who viewed version A rated
income of the individual as $50,694.44, while those viewing version B rated income as $10,4166.67.
For the significant difference for image 4, t(20.84)=5.83, p<.001. Income for version A was, on
average, $124,305.56 and for version B, $47,222.22.
Table 1 (comparison of dark and light images for version A and B of the survey)
These results support the hypothesis that the brightness of an outfit does affect an individual’s
perception of income, and consequently, level of status.
Discussion
Implication
From Kaya and Epps (2004) findings of the rating of different shades of achromatic colors, as
well as the numerous other studies of the importance of color, it would be reasonable to theorize that a
darker color would be rated differently than a lighter one. The evidence from the study suggests that
darker clothes do in fact have an impact on impression formation. The images who depicted a person in
darker clothes were rated as having a higher assumed level of income than the depictions of the same
individuals in a lighter outfit. Drawing back to the initial hypothesis that individuals with higher income are
perceived as holding a higher social status to those with a lower income, the results suggest that those
who wear darker clothes are perceived to hold a higher status. Image four specifically supports this
theory, due to the nature in which brightness was manipulated. This would largely influence how job
applicants might wish to be perceived by interviewers.
Limitations
The digital alterations for images 1, 2, and 3 lack a realistic quality to them. The outfits were
devoid of all color, instead of made a lighter version. However, while these might present a hindrance in
analysis of the accuracy of the results, the results should not be completely dismissed. Evidence that the
hypothesis was still correct can be seen through the analysis of image 4, which showed a significant
difference while also appearing the most realistic. Additionally, image 4 was not a contrast between
achromatic colors, nor was the light version devoid of all color. The digital alterations also created a
jagged outline, which may have appeared unrealistic and influenced responses.
Participants determined income from a forced choice method providing only five options, listed
below. Perhaps if subjects were to fulfill their own value of income, the differences would be less
significant.
Other limitations included the array of participants, who mostly consisted of Caucasian females.
Participants were only taken from a randomly generated list of students who attended Hanover College.
Future Directions
A larger sample of a more diverse demographic may lead to results that more accurately depict
a consensus of opinions. Additionally, better digital enhancement qualities of the pictures would be
extremely beneficial and help exclude possible confounding variables in the subject’s decision making. It
would also enable a more subtle change in color, which may cause the evidence to be less drastically
significant and more reliable to adapt to everyday situations.
More variety of pictures are advised for future studies to exclude the possibility of decision
making being based upon small details such as race or hair color. It would also eliminate the possibility
of personal preference becoming a deciding factor.
Appendix A
References
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