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Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived competence from faces.

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Clothing significantly impacts perceived competence from faces, influencing real-world judgments. Even subtle economic status cues in attire can unfairly affect how individuals are perceived, creating challenges for those with lower social standing.

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Person Perception
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Facial impressions of competence influence significant real-world outcomes like election and CEO selection.
  • Perceived competence is strongly linked to social status.
  • Economic status cues may subtly influence these perceptions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether economic status cues in clothing affect perceived competence from faces.
  • To determine the robustness of this effect under various conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Nine studies were conducted where participants rated the competence of faces in headshots.
  • Faces were presented with clothing categorized by independent judges as 'richer' or 'poorer'.
  • Stimuli exposure times were manipulated, and participants were warned about the irrelevance of clothing cues.

Main Results:

  • Faces wearing 'richer' clothing were consistently judged as significantly more competent than the same faces wearing 'poorer' clothing.
  • This effect remained even with brief (129 ms) exposure.
  • The bias persisted despite explicit warnings and incentives to ignore clothing cues.

Conclusions:

  • Subtle economic status cues in clothing exert an uncontrollable influence on person perception, specifically on judgments of competence.
  • These findings highlight an additional systemic bias that disadvantages low-status individuals.
  • Understanding this bias is crucial for addressing social inequalities.