One of many typical games
children play is dress up. They pick
some clothes, many of which belong to the parents, and play different roles.
Probably doctor and fireman are the most common choices. However, dress up is not reserved only for
children; grownups do it too, but usually are unaware. Each time we go to a black tie party we dress up; each time
we put on the work around the house
clothes we dress up. The clothes we wear influence how we think and how we
behave. The same person who in one instance is dressed up for a black tie party
will behave significantly different when she is dressed in the work around the house clothes. In order
to better understand how the clothes we wear influence our judgment and
behavior, let’s talk about a particular type of clothing, namely uniforms.
Uniforms are something that we
encounter several times each day and they are very diverse. However, when we
think about uniforms the first thing that comes into mind is not the McDonalds
or KLM uniforms, but rather it is the Police, Military or School uniforms. This
is easily explicable because long before corporations started using uniforms
they were used by state organizations such as the Military. The use of uniforms
has several implications that will be briefly presented in the following
paragraphs.
The first implication of uniforms
is identification. Imagine a very bloody and heated battle between two tribes.
In the heat of the battle it would be possible for members of the same tribe to
harm or even kill each-other because they confused the other for an enemy. This
is highly plausible. Nowadays this is called friendly fire that is a nice term for we killed our own. In order to avoid the possibility of two
warriors from the same tribe to slaughter each other, identification features
were introduced. These evolved into military uniforms. The primordial role of uniforms
is for the individual to be identified as a member of a certain group.
The second implication of
uniforms is to enhance the feeling of belonging to a certain group. Whereas the
primary role was to identify another individual as a member of a group, the
second implication refers to the individual’s feeling of belonging to the
group. When dressed up in, let’s say, a military uniform the individual has an
increased sense of belonging to the group, in this case the army.
There is a limitation to
increasing the sense of belonging through the use of uniforms, namely that in
order to enhance the sense of membership, the group must have a well-defined
identity. In the case of the army this is not an issue since the institution
has a very well defined identity. However, if at a new organization uniforms
are introduced, they will not help much in increasing the sense of belonging if
the organization has a weak identity. In simpler words, in order to increase an
individual’s feeling of membership, first there must be something to belong to.
The third implication of uniforms
is that they create anonymity. Once in a uniform the individual is less himself
and more of just another member of a group. In the case of the army things are
quite straight forward. The new recruit Hans is not any more the young man who
lived in a quiet peaceful town with his working class parents. He is now a
soldier; he is now just another soldier in the army. In other cases anonymity
is slightly smaller than in the case of the army, but still exists. For example
most shoppers in an Albert Heijn supermarket notice mainly the uniforms of the
employees and significantly less the individuals who are wearing them.
The sense of anonymity leads to
increased aggression. For example warriors who wear masks are more brutal than
similar warriors who do not use masks. A much closer example of increased
aggression due to anonymity is in the on-line environment. Behind nicknames or
avatars a lot of people are brave,
rude and aggressive. However, the same people would behave like pussy-cats when
they are stripped of their disguises.
The increased aggression of individuals who perceive themselves as anonymous is
attributed to a lack of accountability. This implies that organizations that
use uniforms should make sure that their members are aware of their
accountability for their acts.
The fourth and, in my view, the
most important implication of uniforms is that they induce prototypical
judgment. In an earlier post on priming you have learned that exposure to a
certain piece of information makes a mental construct more salient in the mind,
thus influencing subsequent judgment and behavior. You have also learned that
asking people to think like a trader influences judgment. Simply put, when we
ask somebody to think like a prototypical character we are asking them to put
themselves in the shoes of the character.
In the case of uniforms things go
even further. By dressing up an individual in a uniform that is prototypical
for a category, the person is in the shoes of the prototype. For example dressing a regular person in a
military uniform will make that person act in a more militaristic way. Similarly
if someone would dress up in a doctor’s uniform she would speak using more
medical terms and overall would behave more like she thinks and knows a doctor
behaves.
The process behind these changes
is the following. We have stored in our minds prototypes and their specific
behaviors. When dressed as a prototypical character, say police people, all the
mental constructs related to the police are salient in the mind. Moreover, the
person is now like the prototype of a police person. Subsequently the
individual will exhibit behavior specific for the prototypical character.
This post began with a discussion
about clothes and how they make us think and behave differently. Uniforms are
the best illustration of this phenomenon, but by far most people are not using
uniforms. However, most people have different types of clothes. We have office
clothes, pajamas, work around the house clothes, party outfits and so on. Each
of these types of clothes is associated with a specific context and when we
wear them information related to the context becomes salient in our minds. This
in turn influences how we think and how we behave. Usually we use clothes that
are appropriate for each specific situation. For example we don’t go to
business receptions dressed in pajamas and we don’t vacuum the house in our
party outfits. However, there are a few instances when we might not bother to
change into more appropriate clothes. I’ll illustrate this with an example
soon, but before that, there is another effect of clothes that should be
mentioned.
In an earlier post you have
learned that the furniture we use influences our body posture which in turn
influences judgment and behavior. Clothes have a similar effect, especially
when it comes to the position of shoulders. The shape and the cut of a shirt,
coat or T-shirt influences the position of one’s shoulders. Some cuts favor an
up-right position, while other cuts favor a round-shouldered position. This
might not seem much, but the two shoulder positions are specific for very
different internal states. The up-right is associated with increased
confidence, while the round-shouldered is specific for very low confidence.
I would like to conclude this
chapter with an anecdotic example from my own experience. When my wife finished
her Master program she had to give a presentation on her thesis. Since it was
something very important, at least at the time, she practiced a lot. At one
point she decided that it is time to have some rehearsals in front of an
audience and the audience was me. She asked me to help her in any way I can. I
said that I would like to see the full presentation once and after I will give
her some tips. So we placed the beamer on the table, the laptop next to it,
Cornelia, my wife, was standing next to
them and I was sitting on the couch. She began the presentation and not before
long some stuttering occurred.
I knew how much she had prepared
and I was a bit surprised by these mishaps. Moreover, I was surprised by the
lack of confidence she had while giving the presentation. This was not
justified by anything since the thesis was good and she had worked on it for
many months. Then I realized that both Cornelia and I were still wearing our
staying in the house clothes. As you can imagine the clothes were quite loose
and comfortable, maybe too comfortable. I noticed especially how her
comfortable blouse was making her shoulders to not be up-right.
Realizing all these, I asked
Cornelia to go and change into the clothes she plans to use for the actual
presentation. She did so and in addition put on her elegant shoes. She started
again the rehearsal and this time it went very well and very smooth. There were
only a few fine tunings to be done and after three rehearsals everything was
close to perfect. The actual presentation went very well, too.
