A study released by the Wall Street Journal revealed that dressing well affects the way others think of you, your self-confidence and even the way your brain works when facing a specific activity.
The clothing you wear on a daily basis and to attend your work is much more important than you think.
A study by Yale University in 2014 used 128 men between the ages of 18 and 32, and involved them in simulated buy-sell negotiations.
Those dressed casually, with sports pants and plastic sandals, made a theoretical profit of $ 680,000 (€ 628,000), while the group wearing elegant suits earned on average $ 2.1 million (€ 1.94 million). The group dressed neutrally averaged an income of $ 1.58 million (€ 1.46 million).
According to the co-author of the study, the results are clear: “if you dress well you are more likely to be successful and earn more money .”
Another study found that elegantly dressed people were more likely to think of great ideas and act like a CEO. While those dressed casually worried about minor details.
“People who dress better feel more powerful,” said Michael L. Slepian, co-author of the study and professor at Columbia Business School.
Research shows that you can tell a lot about someone’s personality, politics, status, age and income just from looking at a photo of their shoes.
Did you ever notice that when President Barack Obama addressed a crowd of working class Americans, he would speak with no jacket and his sleeves rolled up? That silently and instantly communicated to the audience that he too was a hard worker.
You might remember when a 44 page dress code published by Swiss bank UBS went viral. The obsessive stipulations detailed everything from the sensible (“If you wear a watch, it suggests reliability and that punctuality is of great concern to you”) to the downright invasive (employees were instructed on how to shower and apply lotion, how to wear their underwear, and told not to eat garlic during the week).
And in the case of people who require specific clothing at work? Try to make a difference without breaking the rules. If everyone in your office wears a shirt, then wear a jacket. And if everyone wears a jacket, you can wear a suit. Just be careful not to dress better than your boss!
