SOCIAL COGNITION AND THE STUDY OF CLOTHING AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Perceptions of an Instructor: Dress and Students' Characteristics

This study examined the influence of a female instructor's clothing style on students' perceptions of an instructor's characteristics. Social perception provided the theoretical framework. Formality of clothing style, students' clothing interest, and students' gender were the independent variables. Perception of the instructor's characteristics was the dependent variable. A 25-item questionnaire was administered to 216 college students from three universities. Perceptions of the instructor's characteristics varied significantly with formality of clothing style. The students' clothing interest influenced perceptions to some extent; gender of students did not.

Breast Cancer as an Embodied Life Event: A Synthesis of Research and Theory and Directions for Intervention and Future Work

With the present work, we reviewed literature exploring breast cancer and body image and invoked this synthesis as a platform from which to develop (a) theoretical applications for understanding the embodied experience of breast cancer, (b) implications for counseling interventions, and (c) recommendations for continued research. Of particular relevance to our analyses was theory related to the social construction of the female body and also theories related to meaning-making, illness, and loss. Based upon our synthesis, we suggest a counseling approach in which professionals treating breast cancer patients listen for and attend to breast cancer patients' attributions of meaning and consider the varied influences that may contribute to those meanings. Additionally, we propose that researchers invoke qualitative approaches and social constructionist/meaning-making perspectives to build understanding about the ways in which a woman's social roles, embodied history, world views, and other contextual factors shape her embodied experience of breast cancer.

Evolution, Appearance, and Occupational Success

Visual characteristics, including facial appearance, are thought to play an important role in a variety of judgments and decisions that have real occupational outcomes in many settings. Indeed, there is growing evidence suggesting that appearance influences hiring decisions and even election results. For example, attractive individuals are more likely to be hired, taller men earn more, and the facial appearance of candidates has been linked to real election outcomes. In this article, we review evidence linking physical appearance to occupational success and evaluate the hypothesis that appearance based biases are consistent with predictions based on evolutionary theories of coalition formation and leadership choice. We discuss why appearance based effects are so pervasive, addressing ideas about a “kernel of truth” in attributions and about coalitional psychology. We additionally highlight that appearance may be differently related to success at work according to the types of job or task involved. For example, leaders may be chosen because the characteristics they possess are seen as best suited to lead in particular situations. During a time of war, a dominant-appearing leader may inspire confidence and intimidate enemies while during peace-time, when negotiation and diplomacy are needed, interpersonal skills may outweigh the value of a dominant leader. In line with these ideas, masculine-faced leaders are favored in war-time scenarios while feminine-faced leaders are favored in peace-time scenarios. We suggest that such environment or task specific competencies may be prevalent during selection processes, whereby individuals whose appearance best matches perceived task competences are most likely selected, and propose the general term “task-congruent selection” to describe these effects. Overall, our review highlights how potentially adaptive biases could influence choices in the work place. With respect to certain biases, understanding their origin and current prevalence is important in order to potentially reduce discrimination in the work place.