Thursday 6 February 2014

RESEARCH: Shoes as a source of first impressions

Journal of Research in Personality:
Shoes as a source of first impressions
Omri Gillath, Angela J. Bahns, Fiona Ge, Christian S. Crandall

Gillath, O., Bahns, A. J., Ge, F., Crandall, C. S., (2012) 'Shoes as a source of first impressions', Journal of Research in Personality, vol. 46, issue 4, August, pp. 423-430

'Surprisingly minimal appearance cues lead perceivers to accurately judge others' personality, status or politics. We investigated people's precision in judging characteristics of an unknown person, based solely on the shoes he or she wears most often. Participants provided photographs of their shoes, and during a separate session completed self-report measures. Coders rated the shoes on various dimensions, and these ratings were found to correlate with the owners' personal characteristics. A new group of participants accurately judged the age, gender, income, and attachment anxiety of shoe owners based solely on the pictures. Shoes can indeed be used to evaluate others, at least in some domains.'  

'People need very little information - a mere thin slice - to form a judgment. Nevertheless, the consensus and accuracy in people's judgments are quite remarkable. Using thin slices people can generate judgments of others across domains, such as personality, political views, racial biases, and sexual orientation.'

'The speed of the decision or judgment, however, can and often does come at the expense of its accuracy. Accurate person perception is an important skill for understanding the social world.  If "perceiving is for doing," then the ability to form accurate impressions based on limited cues is an adaptive social function. Knowing what someone is like based on their outward appearance can save resources and even one's life by giving him or her cues about potential harm doers.'

'Researchers have used different approaches to look into these issues. For example, researchers focusing on first impressions made while on a date, found that even after a relatively short period of conversation, people for a quick first impression and use it to decide if they would like to date a person or not. A different line of research based on the zero-acquaintance approach, showed that participants are capable of forming accurate impressions even without interacting with the target of the equation.'

'Physical appearance is thought to play a central role in the person perception process. To be able to evaluate the unique contribution of physical appearance, however, the amount of information available to the perceiver must be restricted.'

'Shoes are usually the single most expensive item in people's outfit, they have received relatively little attention in research. Shoes serve a practical purpose, and also serve as nonverbal cues with symbolic messages. People tend to pay attention to the shoes the and others wear. Variation in colours, shapes, and styles convey various messages about the shoe owner (such as his/her status or intentions).'

'Although various people have suggested that shoes can reveal information about their owners, such as their sense of security or insecurity, political ideology, and more recently, friendliness, intelligence, happiness, or being outdoorsy, there are actually very little data to support these claims.' 

'One possible framework to explain why shoes might serve as an effective cue about their owners and how observers might use that information to form their impressions is Gosling and colleagues theory on identity claims and behavioral residue. Shoes have great variety of styles, brands, looks, and functions. Because of this variety, shoes can carry individual difference information, but do tey? Adopting Gosling et al's (2002) idea of an identity claim - a symbol displayed by the owners to reinforce their self image - we suggest that the answer is yes. For example, people who are extraverted may think black-and-white is dull, and tend to wear more colourful shoes as an expression of their personality. People with higher income may be more likely to wear shoes with high-end brands as a mean to exhibit their social status.' 

'Conscientious people might clean and organize their shoes more regularly; their shoes may possess a newer or tidier look than shoes of others. Can we use shoes as an example of personally and socially meaningful static cues for accurate person perception?'

'People use shoes to infer others' characteristics. Owners wear shoes that represent a public image - but that image differs substantially from what the tell us with questionnaires. Observers generally pick up on the image the shoe wearer is conveying, but in doing so they might be fooled. Yet unless a shoe owner purposefully generates a deceptive image, shoes can be a reliable source of information.'

'Do people buy and wear shoes strategically to portray an image, and can observers detect the "acquired image?"  These are fundamental questions in personality and social psychology, and they play out in many domains - shoes are merely one attractive alternative to research.'

I have really enjoyed this article and have found it really inspirational. I really like the idea of photographing shoes as there is so much more meaning behind it, I like the idea of this being again with the disposable cameras as I won't know who the owner is and too can make the assumptions, only the subjects will know that it is their own shoes. By giving the subject the camera to photograph the shoes themselves it works almost as an alternative self portrait and I really like the idea of it being an unconventional self portrait as it will be giving us an insight into the subject themselves.

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