“Dressing for success” still matter?

What you wear can influence your thinking and negotiating skills, and even hormone levels and heart rate.

The old advice to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, may have roots in more than simply how others perceive you—many studies show that the clothes you wear can affect your mental and physical performance.

Although such findings about so-called enclothed cognition are mostly from small studies in the laboratory that have not yet been replicated or investigated in the real world, a growing body of research suggests that there is something biological happening when we put on a snazzy outfit and feel like a new person.

If you want to be a big-ideas person at work, suit up. Wearing formal business attire increased abstract thinking—an important aspect of creativity and long-term strategizing. This suggest the effect is related to feelings of power.

Male subjects wearing Informal clothing may hurt in negotiations. Wearing their usual duds or were placed in a suit or in sweats. Then they engaged in a game that involved negotiating with a partner.

Those who dressed up obtained more profitable deals than the other two groups, and those who dressed down had lower testosterone levels.?

For better focus, get decked out like a doctor. Subjects made half as many mistakes on an attention-demanding task when wearing a white lab coat.

On another attention task, those told their lab coat was a doctor's coat performed better than either those who were told it was a painter's smock or those who merely saw a doctor's coat on display.

?Inspired by findings that winning combat fighters in the Olympics had worn red more often than blue, researchers investigated the physiological effects of wearing these colors.

Male athletes of similar age and size, who competed against one another once while wearing a red jersey and again while wearing blue.

Compared with fighters in blue, those wearing red were able to lift a heavier weight before the match and had higher heart rates during the match—but they were not more likely to be victorious.

Trying too hard to look sharp can backfire.

When women donned expensive sunglasses and were told the specs were counterfeit, as opposed to when they thought they were real, they cheated more often on lab experiments with cash payouts. Fake sunglasses also seemed to make women see others' behavior as suspect.

It's not news to anyone that we judge others based on their clothes. In general, studies that investigate these judgments find that people prefer clothing that matches expectations—surgeons in

In one scenario, a man at a black-tie affair was viewed as having higher status and competence when wearing a red bow tie. The researchers also found that valuing uniqueness increased audience members' ratings of the status and competence of a professor who wore red Converse sneakers while giving a lecture.

The results suggest that people judge these slight deviations from the norm as positive because they suggest that the individual is powerful enough to risk the social costs of such behaviors.

Disclaimer:?The information on this POST is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional advice. The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. All content, including text, graphics, images and information, contained on or available through this article is for general information purposes / educational purposes only, and to ensure discussion or debate.

Thank you?…. The idea of dressing for success used to be relatively straightforward; wear formal clothes, the smarter the better. In traditional offices, those at the top of the pyramid would invariably be found in a suit; dressing for the job you wanted meant emulating this style.?

The rise of the tech sector shifted this stereotype. Picture Silicon Valley’s most high-profile leaders, and the clothes that spring to mind are jeans, hoodies and black turtlenecks.

In the tech world, success has a different kind of uniform – one markedly more casual than the suits of the past. This trend towards informality has spread to other sectors.?

Then, in 2020, the widespread switch to remote work upended work dress codes altogether.?

During the pandemic, workers mostly saw colleagues from the shoulders up on video calls – if they saw them at all. From home, employees could easily put in a stellar performance in a meeting in a collared shirt, sweatpants and slippers. If the cameras were off, they could even be in pajamas, working under a duvet.?

Now, as workers drift back into offices and companies' trial new hybrid models, few firms are demanding a return to formal wear.

So, what does this mean for dressing for success?

Turning up to work in a suit no longer sends the same message, but wearing a hoodie hardly feels like power dressing. With so many different dress codes at play across companies, is it still possible to ‘dress for the job you want’??

Do you want to add a word or two?

The right clothes send the right message?

Dressing for success has always required a degree of subtlety?

The idea is to observe the people in your organization who have the job you want to understand how they dress, and how you can imitate that with an individual twist.?

You’re sending a message about where you position yourself and what you aspire to. We might dress similarly to our peers to help us feel like we belong.

?Or if you're wanting to move forward in your career, you might dress as you perceive the leaders dress to show that you’re ready to move into this group.

Drawing attention to similarities between yourself and more senior workers is an effective strategy. We think favorably of people we see as similar.

Aligning your style with people in more senior positions can also help you look and feel the part.

Your comments....

For a lot of people, choosing to focus positively about how they dress and present themselves can help them feel confident about what they do and how they operate at work.?

These days, there’s another element to dressing for success: showing you’ve correctly interpreted the rules of your workplace and can adhere to them.

Before, when everyone wore formal wear, decoding the unspoken rules on dress was easier. Today, particularly in companies where dress codes are more liberal, identifying and hitting the right sartorial notes can be more nuanced – and a well-judged outfit indicates that you understand and align with the company culture.?

It shows attention to detail, commitment, and consistency. It shows that you are attempting to own your personal brand and how you show up in spaces. It also, he adds, sends a clear message to the higher-ups.

The more you align yourself with signs and signals that represent you want to take that next step in your career within that organization, the more that's going to be noticed by executives.

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