The Impact of Clothing and Hair Styles on the Formation of First Impressions

Studies of impressions based on appearance generally manipulate only one appearance factor (e.g., clothing), typically with targets of one gender. Our 64 subjects rated photos of female or male targets (between-subjects) who differed in appearance on two within-subjects dimensions, style of dress (business, casual, or sloppy) and hair style (traditional or non-traditional), on several characteristics. Both style of dress and hair style had significant effects, which for some characteristics interacted with target sex