Psychology Behind Human Clothing
Protection and self-expression are the two primary purposes of clothing for humans.
When we meet someone, our brain uses many shortcuts to determine if they are our friend or foe. What are their status and personality? So clothes act as a guide for our brain to distinguish other humans.
Without our awareness, we wear our clothes that highlight our exciting features and who we are? and show us what role we play in our society. 2012 study found that the clothes we wear have a symbolic meaning and proved that it changes our thinking.
In the research, researchers provided a laboratory coat to two groups. Group A was told the doctor’s coat, and group B was told the painter’s coat. Then both groups got a task that needs full of attention and logic to solve. Surprisingly, the overall performance of Group A looked much better than that of Group B. The main reason for this result was “the doctor’s coat reflects achievement, intelligence, and strength.”
So when an ordinary person wears a doctor’s coat, these qualities come out of him, and this effect is called Encoded Cognition, i.e., the clothes we wear reflect our mindset. This psychological effect works in uniformed soldiers, athletics, corporate people.
Men and women have very different beauty goals. Men show their usefulness through their appearances such as strength, reliability, and status: some men wear suits to show their power, some men wear simple t-shirts, sweaters for their honest personality, and some expensive clothes to show their rich status.
Women indicate femininity through their clothes and makeup, such as fertility, beauty, and adolescence. They wear high heels to reflect the shape of their hips, legs, and chest.
The clothes you wear can make your appearance look good or bad because clothes filled with many color combinations make your skin look healthy or unhealthy. Which clothes suit you depends on the color of your hair and the color of your skin. American author and designer Alan Flusser describes in his book “Dressing the Man” if both your skin and hair are light in color, the radiance of your face is not visible when wearing different colors.
Similarly, if your hair is black and your skin is light or medium, you look healthy in contrasting colors like black, white, blue, orange, red, and green.
If your hair is black and your skin is brown in color, you can show your health to yourself with almost any color that matches your taste. If you are bald with light skin, you look excellent with natural colors like red, blue, gray, black, and forest green. A dark-skinned man looks good in clothes of almost all colors except dark gray. Similarly, people with medium skin or scalp look healthier in darker natural colors, such as black, gray, and navy blue. The more you use clothing as a tool, the more you can enhance your natural features and talents.
Author Tanner Guzy said in his book “Appearance of Power” “Throughout history the presence of any person is an important part of society” because we believe it or not. Still, we observe every person from his presence. So clothing Plays a significant role in a person’s personality. If you want to change yourself and become like a particular excellent person, you can speed up the process of change by imitating the dress of the same person.
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Every great man is imitating his ideals, so the radical change you see at the beginning of your transformation does two things. First, it lets others know about your growth, and second, It makes you feel that you are on a new mission.
But many times, when we start to change ourselves, it takes a long time for the results to come. So we are demoted and go back to the old state because internal reforms are not enough to get measurable new developments, so we must complement our internal improvements with external improvement.
Remember, our presence can be an asset or liability, so in this condition, we will take it to the next level of our development by making it our best investment.
