Clothing and Physical Impairment: Joint Effects on Person Perception

Abstract

A theory of person perception that is based on the perceptual salience of stimulus persons was used to investigate the impact of physical impairment and clothing on impression formation It was predicted that observers of physically impaired stimulus persons would attribute the cause of their behavior more to personal dispositions and less to situational constraints than observers of nonimpaired persons. It was also predicted that patterned clothing on stimulus persons would lead to relatively high personal and relatively low situational attributions. In the spirit of seeking to determine if clothing can ameliorate the stereotypic responses elicitec by physical impairment, it was further predicted that the physical impairment and clothing variables would interact in affecting the impressions formed by observers. A factorial experi ment including manipulations of physical impairment and clothing was conducted. Both of the physical appearance variables were found to influence aspects of impression formation dealing with causal attributions. The scant evidence suggestive of a multiplicative relation ship between physical impairment and the degree of articulation of clothing is discussed in terms of the value of the basic theory for examinations of the impact of physical appearance on impression formation.