For 9/29
I found the article about enclothed cognition very interesting because it immediately flashed me back to high school. I attended a magnet school that specialized in health careers and therefore, in lieu of a uniform, we were all given the option to wear medical scrubs every day to class. Now back then, I had no idea of the possible effects of wearing those clothes to school day in and day out.
After reading this article, I'm very curious as to how other clothes with symbolic meaning would affect those wearing it; would wearing a police officer's uniform make you more protective, or a firefighter's uniform make you more prone to putting yourself in danger. Also, who's to say that wearing the white robe and believing that it was a painter's robe didn't enhance the creativity within those wearing it. And why even limit it to specific professions? Would you not be more inclined to notice ancient hematological artifacts if you were dressed as Indiana Jones, or make startling deductions were you wearing Sherlock Holmes's garbs.
Although these examples may not necessarily be in line with the clothes affecting one's cognitive processes, and might be more focused on behavior, but it is one's cognitive process that results in behavior. And regardless, I believe the overall cause is the same. Because we are aware that our "clothing affects how other people perceive us", when we dress in a way that we know will elicit a specific view about us, and it is not in line with how we view ourselves, then our mind will essentially "pick up the slack" and make us slightly more like whatever characteristics are symbolically associated with the clothing.
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