
Wearing a Suit Makes People Think Differently - sergiotapia
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/wearing-a-suit-makes-people-think-differently/391802/?single_page=true
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falcolas
This is making me consider the purchase a few suits, for use when I have
meeting with upper management. I've noticed a similar causal link in my own
life, but I've never had a comfortable suit, so...

Meta: I really appreciate how the Atlantic wrote up this article on a research
paper. It calls out the details of the research, identifies the potential
shortfalls of the research, and the actual (non-exaggerated) results - "a
causal link" \- all within a well written narrative. Bravo, Atlantic. Bravo.

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amelius
I always think people in suits look like salesmen, and I treat them with more
suspicion. I know, it is not correct to be prejudiced, but so is wearing a
suit in order to change how people think about you.

~~~
pekk
You don't really know why I'm wearing a suit, though; maybe I like it.

~~~
gress
Nevertheless, you will be subjected to distrust.

~~~
HelloThereHuman
By some people. But that goes for when you're wearing you cool hoodie too.
People are different! Now here's Tom with the weather.

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metasean
>Putting on formal clothes makes us feel powerful, and that changes the basic
way we see the world,...

There are occasions when putting on formal clothes makes me feel more, well
"formal", such as weddings and funerals. The rest of the time they make me
feel constrained, confined, not empowered, and just another cog in the
machine, i.e. _not powerful_.

>Rutchick and his co-authors found that wearing clothing that’s more formal
than usual makes people think more broadly and holistically, rather than
narrowly and about fine-grained details.

I've certainly never experienced this; I've experienced quite the opposite, in
fact!

So I suspect that there are some important confounding factors involved!

> A suit is a uniform.
> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9476661](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9476661)
> Yes, but unlike a uniform, when wearing a suit I don't experience any sense
> of community pride[1].

[1] For me, it was never about "ho ra - go USA"-type, nationalistic pride,
rather it was pride in myself and the people around me for helping to defend
and serve our countrymen and others, worldwide, who were in need.

~~~
Jedd

      > > Rutchick and his co-authors found that wearing clothing that’s more
      > > formal than usual makes people think more broadly and holistically,
      > > rather than narrowly and about fine-grained details.
      >
      >  I've certainly never experienced this; I've experienced quite the opposite, in fact!
      >
      > So I suspect that there are some important confounding factors involved!
    

Numbers aren't available in the abstract, but I _suspect_ that Rutchick et
al's sample set was sufficiently large - at least compared to your sample size
(of one). There may be confounding factors, but more data, less anecdote,
would be required to substantiate the counter-claim.

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metasean
> So I ___suspect_ __that there are some important confounding factors
> involved!

Hence, I only "suspect" that there are confounding factors, I do not in fact
"claim" that there are confounding factors.

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xenophonf
I work from home, and I've toyed with the idea of dressing up (even just a
collared shirt) for exactly this reason - putting on formal attire helps me
get into the proper mental state for work. I've used the same trick (suiting
up every day) to keep myself productive in absolutely miserable working
conditions. Sure, it'd be nice if I had the self-discipline necessary to keep
myself focused, etc. regardless of what I wore---but sometimes I don't, so
thankfully formal wear is another tool I can apply in those situations where I
need it.

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rokhayakebe
It definitely makes a sharp difference. Pair that with a very clean and
uncluttered desk, office, and you are golden.

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icebraining
Here's the paper: [http://www.columbia.edu/~ms4992/Publications/2015_Slepian-
Fe...](http://www.columbia.edu/~ms4992/Publications/2015_Slepian-Ferber-Gold-
Rutchick_Clothing-Formality_SPPS.pdf)

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Havoc
Of more interest to me is the fact that it makes others treat me differently.
Thats useful if say going to a shop to dispute a cellphone bill.

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suvelx
I recently went to a furniture store dressed like a 'cholo'. No sales-person
would talk to me, to the point of struggling to get a brochure.

Returned to the same shop in a collared shirt. The salesman wouldn't leave me
alone.

Next time I return, It'll be back in my scruffy attire, ready to make a
purchase.

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bane
There's a video somewhere on the behind the scenes of the movie "Master and
Commander" and one of the things they talk about is how the officer's period
uniforms caused the cast to instantly stand upright and at attention and start
to behave the way the director wanted them to. They attributed it to the
oversized, stiff, collars forcing the actors heads up.

Did this make them think different? I don't know, but it gives them an "in
charge" effect during the movie that must send subtle signals back and forth
between officers and crew.

As somebody with an 18" neck and short arms, one thing I've incredibly happy
about is the near death of the tie. It's finally become acceptable (and
stylish) to wear a suit without a tie. Finding shirts that fit my frame is
nearly impossible and the number of collar burns I've come home with from
keeping the top button closed and a tie on is something I hope I never have to
deal with again.

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carsongross
I highly recommend getting custom made shirts. There has been a resurgence of
custom tailors with competitive pricing. Sacramento has a great shop:

[http://www.rdouglas.net/](http://www.rdouglas.net/)

Properly tailored clothing will change your life.

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A_COMPUTER
Disdain for the suit is a counterculture (aka American mainstream culture)
touchstone and as such is just as much an example of group membership as
wearing a suit is for a different group of people. This is why you frequently
hear stories on here of people not getting hired because the candidate wore a
suit.

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fnordfnordfnord
Clothing also alters the way people treat you, obviously. That changes the way
you perceive the world, even if you're mindful of the effect.

I've never been one who minded rolling my sleeves up when needed, but I can
recall several instances of both: Why it is an advantage to be dressed
"nicely" and, why it isn't.

Working in a field service position (attendance at the office was required) at
a medium-sized company where much of the manufacturing was done in-house, I
noticed that if you were the nicest dressed technician, that you would rarely
be recruited for any dirty jobs that came up.

Working in the engineering dep't for the same company, if you dressed well and
kept your work area neat, salespeople would often parade clients through your
area, disturbing you.

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christianbryant
I think that the conversation covers lots of knowns and unsurprising actions
on both the suit wearer's and the suit observer's side of perception. The real
conversation should be how to rid the world of formality? I personally feel
ill every time I have to wear anything that others consider formal business
wear. I was a technical project manager (forgive me) for a few years and I
felt like a traitor every time I sat with a group of engineers who all were
wearing what makes us comfortable: GNU hacker t-shirts, jeans and Dr. Martens
(or variations thereof).

When I see suits, I think of keywords like "deceit" and "materialism" and
"shallow". I also feel like people in suits are being subjugated, no matter
how high up the totem pole they think they are. I grew up painfully poor, so I
assume much of my opinion and reaction to seeing a suit comes from feeling the
vast economic divide between me and people in suits, much the way I feel a
sickness and anger when I see people in cars like Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar.

Suits make people think differently. But for the right reasons? I will never
"suit up", personally, by choice.

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Jedd
Interesting viewpoint.

Up until the keyword association, you were in a moderately defensible
position. But deceit, materialism and shallow -- associating those sensations
with what some people wear is some regrettable kind of -ism. How do you feel,
in a group of engineers, if someone choose to not wear Dr Martens (or
something comparably expensive)? If a collared shirt is worn, something casual
and comfortable say, have they also abandoned everything you think they should
hold dear about being an engineer?

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teacup50
So we should only accept the intended signaling of people's clothing choices,
and never think any deeper about _why_ they made signaling clothing choices?

There's a wide range of choices between wearing clothes that are well suited
to what you'll physically be doing in them, and wearing clothes suited to
signaling something about yourself, and where clothing falls in that range
_does_ say something about the wearer.

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christianbryant
I think we should all take a second look at what clothes "mean". I maintain my
distaste for expensive and overly formal clothing, since it flies in the face
of poverty and those who have little in America. But I concede that it helps
nobody to attack a person or front-load judgement of them based solely on
their appearance...

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smorrow
I would guess that natural differences between individuals in thinking style
would heavily outweigh any differences caused by wearing a suit or not.

~~~
coldtea
That would be the idealistic view of individuality et al, but the thing is
people are more alike than they think.

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givan
It's strange how suits became a standard for government officials, big
business and everyone that want's to look "serious" in all countries over the
world, it shows how the western culture conquered the entire world.

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qnaal
Maybe there's something about suits that looks universally serious?

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ska
Fashion seems too changeable over time for that to be likely.

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MacsHeadroom
Yet the basic form of suits have hardly changed in over two centuries.

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4ydx
Is anybody really surprised by this research? I doubt it. Humans love to form
exclusive groups. A suit is nearly non-functional and mostly symbolic: I have
a job where I am "important" (and I make money). A uniform on a police officer
or a doctor or a firefighter? It helps people to distinguish them from the
rest of the crowd. A suit on the other hand is a generic line drawn in the
sand between people, I feel.

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pkroll
This is interesting in itself, but is it the next logical version of "the suit
is back!" as described in Graham's PR article?
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

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jhwhite
I took a psych class in high school and one of our assignments was to dress up
on Fridays for 6 weeks and record how we thought about ourselves on those days
and how others treated us.

All I remember about it now is getting a lot of compliments when I wore a tie.

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Sven7
Gandhi didn't have to wear a suit. He grew up being told to wear one though.
And that suit didn't help when he got thrown of the train.

~~~
norswap
Gandhi didn't wear a suit, but he did wear a uniform of sorts (his white
tunic).

~~~
IkmoIkmo
He most certainly did in the first half of his life as a lawyer.

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znpy
"Suit up!!"

