Attire, Physical Appearance, and First Impressions: More Is Less

Abstract

The present research modeled research on trait descriptive adjectives (Anderson, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1979; Zanna and Hamilton, 1972) and examined the manner in which the impact of a target physical appearance cue changes as a function of the number and type of other identifiable physical appearance cues available. In a procedure similar to that used by Zanna and Hamilton (1972), subjects viewed and rated 16 slides of stimulus persons, each of which varied in physical appearance. The 16 slides were developed from a factorial combination of four specific physical appearance cues identified in terms of deviations from a standard. Three separate experiments were conducted. The physical appearance cues were categorized into two types according to whether they were relevant for social situations or task-related situations. A 25 factorial design was used with repeated measurements on each factor. In accord with the basic theory, it was hypothesized that the impact of a single physical appearance cue will be affected by the presence or absence of other such cues. An analysis of variance was conducted and results of the statistical analysis supported the hypothesis. The impact of any one cue was found to decrease in the presence of similar cues but was found to increase in the presence of dissimilar cues. These results imply that a given cue will have diminishing impact on first impressions when presented with similar cues but will have an increasing impact on first impressions when presented with dissimilar cues.