Numerous recent studies validate the adage "dress for success," showing that putting an extra effort into one's appearance can have a significant impact on productivity, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The studies included simulated business meetings in which some subjects wore formal attire while others donned casual clothing. Those in the nicer outfits indicated higher confidence levels, affected how others perceived them and, in some cases, even improved the level of the wearer's abstract thinking.
According a study co-written by Michael W. Kraus, PhD, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Conn., clothes associated with a high social status enhance dominance and work performance in "high-stakes" competitive tasks, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The study analyzed 128 men ages 18 through 32 in mock negotiations over the sale of a hypothetical factory. The "buyers" were either dressed in business suits and dress shoes or sweatpants and T-shirts with plastic sandals. The "sellers" were called "neutrals" and remained in the clothes they arrived in.
The negotiators were provided with the fair-market value for the hypothetical factory and information that would influence the opening bids and prices they asked for. The men dressed in suits were far less willing to concede during the negotiations, only moving off their initial offer by an average of $830,000, while those in sweatpants and T-shirts were willing to go up $2.81 million, according to the report.
"Dressing to impress" works: Formal attire sends a signal to others "about you being successful and real confident in whatever you're doing," Dr. Kraus said, according to the report. Those dressed in more casual clothing are more likely to back down.
A study published last year in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science analyzed 361 participants who were asked to complete various thinking tasks. Those who were dressed more formally demonstrated abstract thinking — the type someone in an authoritative position engages in. Another 88 subjects were better able to see the bigger picture during problem-solving when they were dressed in formal wear than casual clothes.
"When you need to think creatively, about the bigger picture, that's when dressing formally will increase your productivity," said the study's co-author Michael L. Slepian, a postdoctoral research scholar and adjunct assistant professor at Columbia Business School, according to the report. "People who wear that kind of clothing feel more powerful. When you feel more powerful, you don't have to focus on the details."