Judging the Appearances of a Person Based on Their Clothing

The way individuals dress can be judged by others to be positive or negative based on what they are wearing. Society in general tends to be critical towards others based on what they wear, which can have an effect on one’s attractiveness. The way someone dresses gives others in their environment an opportunity to guess what kind of person they are, before taking the time to get to know them. It is often assumed that the way someone looks on the outside, matches the way they are on the inside (Buckley 1983). Problems that arise with this belief is that society will think that it is normal and acceptable to judge people. The purpose of the present study is to further evidence regarding how clothing affects the judgments of attractiveness. Participants (n=60) solicited from Dominican University classrooms and through emails will be sent a survey through different social networks using SurveyMonkey.com. There will be three male and three female models appearing in a total of eighteen pictures dressed in the following three clothing attires: casual, formal, and gothic. Participants will be asked 20 questions that measure attractiveness, introversion, and extroversion using the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), as well as items about their own experience and opinions. This study furthers current research to extend findings of how attractiveness is affected by clothing. It is hypothesized that 1) the models who appear gothic and/or too casual will be rated unattractive and/or introverted, 2) the models who are in formal attire will be rated very attractive, extraverted, and confident, and 3) the models that look gothic will be critiqued negatively for possibly appearing dangerous, threatening,and neurotic. Data collection for this study will take place in February/March of 201