Perception of clothing clues : its relation to liking for the clothing by the viewer and similarity to the clothing worn by the viewer

Graduation date: 1983Perception between people is part of the process of nonverbal\ud communication. Person perception including body, facial expression,\ud facial features, and clothing is part of the process that results\ud in the formation of impressions of persons by each other.\ud The purpose of this study was to investigate clothing perception\ud and develop methods of evaluating what is noticed about clothing\ud in simulated first encounter situations.\ud This study investigated relationships between number and type\ud of clothing clues, degree of liking for clothing viewed, and similarity\ud of clothing of stimulus to subject (st/su).\ud Data were collected in the form of written responses by 255\ud (116 male and 139 female) subjects responding to fourteen stimulus\ud slides of men's and women's clothing. Responses were analyzed for\ud each clothing slide to determine the number of clothing clues and\ud types of clothing clues mentioned. Clothing clue words were categorized\ud into three categories: descriptive (D), inferred (I), and\ud evaluative (E). Two systems of coding the categories were developed:\ud dominant and composite.\ud Relationships between the four variables, number of clues,\ud types of clues, degree of liking for clothing viewed, and similarity\ud of clothing of stimulus/subject, were examined using tests of mean,\ud median, chi-square, and the Spearman Correlation Coefficient. Of\ud the six null hypothesis, one was rejected, four were partially rejected,\ud and one failed to be rejected.\ud There was no significant relationship between types of clothing\ud clues mentioned and the degree of liking for the clothing viewed.\ud There was a partial relationship between the number of clothing\ud clues and the similarity of clothing of stimulus/subject.\ud Female subjects tended to give a greater number of clothing clues\ud than male subjects when they were viewing similar (female) clothing\ud slides, and also greater numbers of clothing clues when viewing\ud dissimilar (male) clothing slides.\ud There was a partial relationship between number of clothing\ud clues and degree of liking for clothing viewed. Nine of the\ud fourteen clothing slides had no significant relationship between\ud these variables.\ud There was a partial relationship between the types of clothing\ud clues given and the similarity of clothing of stimulus/subject.\ud Using the dominant coding system there was no relationship between\ud these variables. Using the composite coding system there was no\ud significant relationship for ten of the fourteen clothing slides.\ud There was a partial relationship between the degree of liking\ud for clothing viewed and the similarity of clothing of stimulus/\ud subject. Although there were some significant differences between\ud same sex and different sex in the degree of liking, examination of\ud the data shows that there is not consistency in same sex (similar)\ud scoring higher or lower than opposite sex (different) on degree of\ud liking for clothing slide viewed.\ud There was a significant relationship between number of\ud clothing clues mentioned and type of clothing clue. Subjects using\ud only descriptive words gave a significantly greater number of words.\ud Subjects using only evaluative words gave significantly fewer words.\ud Fewer subjects used words in the inferred category.\ud In summary, female subjects viewing female clothing slides\ud tended to give significantly different scores when noting the number\ud of clues and the degree of liking for a clothing slide. Male subjects\ud viewing male clothing slides gave fewer numbers of clothing\ud clues than did female subjects. Male and female subjects did not\ud give significantly different types of clothing clues when responding\ud to either male or female clothing slides.\ud This study shows that it is possible and useful to evaluate\ud clothing perception to determine the number and types of clothing\ud clues. The variables related to similarity and liking could be\ud modified to achieve more determinant results. Additional studies\ud can be undertaken to refine the methods and to investigate other\ud variables related to clothing perception