This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lennon, S. J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Effects of Clothing Attractiveness on Perceptions

Sharron Lennon, Apparel Merchandising, 203 Wylie Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405

In many physical attractiveness studies, it is clothing and other appearance vari ables that are manipulated, not actual physical beauty, in order to vary physical attractiveness. Thus, results that have been attributed to physical attractiveness may actually be due to clothing attractiveness. The purpose of this research was to determine whether people perceive others differentially as a function of the attractiveness of their clothing. Slides of six different models in business attire, three wearing attractive clothing and three wearing unattractive clothing, served as stimuli. Fifty-nine participants listened to a pre-recorded audio tape consisting of 30 suggestions relative to marketing a perfume. As a comment was heard, a slide of the woman purported to have made the comment was projected. Sub jects rated the women on competence, work comfort, and sociability. Multivari ate and univariate analyses of variance revealed that, as expected, models dressed in attractive clothing were perceived more positively than models dressed in unattractive clothing on each of the three dependent variables. These results provide some support for a clothing attractiveness stereotype that may function analogously to the well-documented physical attractiveness stereotype. It is known that physical attractiveness, a variable over which one has little control, exerts a potent influence in social situations. These results imply that clothing attractiveness, a variable over which one has potential control, might exert a similar influence.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?