THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHING
- What should I wear today?
- I have nothing to wear!
- Do these glasses suit me?
- This shirt is hardly appropriate for a meeting!
- You can't go there in this outfit!
- I found the perfect shoe for the occasion!
- If I want to impress her, I must wear this!
- This one looks great on me!
- You can't go to a date with this t-shirt!
- If you go to school in these socks, everyone will look at you!
- I can't talk to anyone. I better wear a hat so no one can see me.
You try on a lot of clothes in front of the mirror, you don't even want to leave the house because you don't have any "suitable" clothes, you go to a first date or a meeting with your outfit that makes you feel stronger, you go shopping just to cheer up, or you go to the store because you have never had similar thoughts. Have you ever confused yourself even more by trying different combinations in the trial cabinet?
Every garment has a special symbolic meaning for us, and because of these symbolic meanings, everything we wear directly affects our mood, attitude and self-confidence; because we think not only with our mind, but also with our body. You know when they say "you are what you eat", just like him. We are what we wear! Fashion is actually a phenomenon that was born to reflect stereotypical moods. We directly reflect what we feel, what emotions we have, how we deal with these emotions, how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us, and we do this more or less consciously. Especially in situations that are important to us, when we are able to reflect ourselves as we want to reflect, we feel happier and our self-confidence rises rapidly.
Not only our mood, but also our attitude depending on our mood is affected by what we wear. So how can simple clothing affect our behavior? In the "white lab coat" study conducted by Northwestern University's Adam and Galinsky (2012), two different groups of subjects were dressed in white lab coats and were asked to do some tasks. One group was told that the apron they wore was a doctor's apron, while the other group was told that the apron they wore was a painter's apron. The subjects who thought they were wearing a doctor's coat approached the task given to them with the seriousness of a doctor and performed better than the other group. At another stage, the aprons were not put on the subjects, they were only placed on the tables and the subjects were told that they would wear a doctor's or painter's apron. Although the subjects knew which apron to wear, the presence of the apron did not create an effect as it was worn when they performed related to the tasks assigned to them. The research ultimately showed how clothing affects human cognition, i.e. thoughts and therefore behavior, based on the co-occurrence of the symbolic meaning of clothing and the physical wearing of clothing. A dress with an authoritative meaning, so to speak, activates us and pushes us to concentrate more, put more effort into what we are doing.
There is no doubt that the way we choose to wear one over the other has a huge impact on our perception of ourselves, our mood, and our attitude. Building on the same idea, Caroline Adams Miller, author of Creating Your Best Life; He talks about being happier by wearing things that evoke positive emotions, get positive reactions from others, or remind us of positive experiences.
Clothes invade the body and brain, leaving us with a different psychological state each time. Moreover, it is mostly in our hands.
So what are you wearing today?
Expert Psychologist
Peren KISTAK