Dressing down can add to your status
Looking like a bum can give impression you don’t have to follow rules, study finds
“I have a number of super-successful Silicon Valley clients who dress in ripped denim, Vans shoes and T-shirts. They are worth hundreds of millions, even more, but it’s a status symbol to dress like you’re homeless to attend board meetings.” Tom Searcy, CBS Moneywatch
If you walk into Holt Renfrew looking like a slob, do it with an air of intention as opposed to self-consciousness. New research out of Harvard Business School finds that deviating from dress norms can operate much like conspicuous consumption in its capacity to convey that you’re a big shot.
Put simply, a way of saying you’re so important that the rules of polite society — and those of E! Fashion Police, for that matter — don’t apply.
The study, to appear in the Journal of Consumer Research, reveals the specific circumstances in which nonconformity signals status (think Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in one of his many hoodies) versus unworthiness (think Julia Roberts, in full prostitute regalia, shopping in the movie Pretty Woman).
“We all have a desire to fit in. What this means, usually, is that we follow social norms and rules of appropriate conduct,” said study co-author Francesca Gino, assistant professor of business administration at H.B.S. in Boston. “Yet, in our research, we show that deviating from the accepted dress code or social norms has surprising benefits: It leads others to think we have greater status.”
This bears out across five studies, in both the lab and the field, with more than 600 people. In one experiment, for instance, shop assistants employed in luxury boutiques were likelier to think a woman dressed in gym clothes, versus a fur coat, was a celebrity or person of wealth. And in another, a professor at a leading university was perceived by students as having higher status when he was sporting a T-shirt and beard versus a tie and cleanshaven face.
The researchers dub it “the red sneakers effect,” based on an experiment in which Gino lectured at Harvard wearing red Converse shoes rather than traditional business footwear.
The top-tier teaching environment, along with the author’s deliberateness (the sneakers were worn with a suit), helped confer authority in the eyes of students — especially those who had a desire to stand out themselves.
“We often devote great effort to enhancing our status in the eyes of those around us when, in fact, just being willing to deviate from a dress code or other norm of appropriate conduct may do the trick,” said Gino, author of the recent book Sidetracked.
Her co-author, Harvard researcher Silvia Bellezza, said it’s about perceived autonomy.
“People who deviate are seen as dictating their own laws,” Bellezza said. “If you’re a professor at H.B.S. and engage in this kind of conduct, there can be benefits. But for a person like me — I’m still a doctoral student — I wouldn’t dare do it.”
In other words, Bill Gates can wear jeans to a meeting becausehe’sbeyondreproach — his casual dress actually affirms that — whereas a new employee would be taking a risk in dressing down.
“The observer has to understand that it’s not because the person lacks the financial means to be nicely dressed, and that it’s not (a reflection) of unawareness about the rules,” Bellezza explained.
To wit, the non-conformist must appear to be intentional with his or her style choices.