Do Clothes Really Make the Man?

After reading The New York Times article about how clothing can bring about certain behaviors, I was reminded about the Zimbardo experiment (a.k.a. The Stanford Prison Experiment) that was done in 1971.

In a nutshell, Zimbardo wanted to study whether or not prison guard brutality was due to the personalities of the officers, or if it was due to the environment itself. The study consisted of 21 students from Stanford University, who were promised 15 dollars each day they were in the study. 10 of these students played the role of prisoners while 11 students played the guards. In the end, they had to shut down the experiment two weeks early because of the increase of mental breakdowns between the "prisoners." This was a result of the "prison guards" behaving aggressively towards the prisoners, but what caused this behavior in the first place?

There were multiple reasons why the "guards" conformed to their roles so well, but for the sake of this post the reason I want to focus on are the uniforms that the guards had to wear during the experiment. All the guards were issued the same uniform: khaki shirt and shorts, a billy club, a whistle, and tinted sunglasses. This uniform, when compared to the uniform of the "prisoners," portrayed superiority. The sunglasses in particular not only meant that the prisoners couldn't look into the eyes of the guards, but that the guards' true identities were hidden. This influenced the guards in the way they behaved towards the prisoners in the experiment. Even though they were all students of the same school and both groups were getting paid the same amount, the guards dominated the prisoners. I don't think they would have behaved in the same way if they had to wear their normal, everyday clothes.

Now obviously this is an extreme example of how our clothing can influence our behavior, but it is interesting to see how much it can actually affect us. In my own personal life for example, when I put on an outfit that I think looks awesome I walk out of the house feeling confident. If I go to school looking "sloppy," I feel tired throughout the day and I go home with the desire to shower and go straight to sleep. I am a firm believer that how we dress can affect our moods and our behavior on a day-to-day basis.