Person and Costume: Effects on the Formation of First Impressions

Abstract

This exploratory study examined the effects of the stimulus person and the clothing worn by the stimulus person on the formation of first impressions, where the stimulus per son and the observer were female peers. A four‐by‐four factorial experiment was designed to measure the simultaneous effects of person‐costume photographic stimuli on the subjects' initial formation of athletic, social, and intellectual impressions. Each of 240 female uni versity students was randomly assigned to respond to one of 16 person‐costume photo graphs on an Impression Measure developed for this study using the semantic differential technique. Analysis of variance and correlation ratios measured the extent to which person and costume affected the initial formation of the impression dimensions studied. Costume exerted major influence on the formation of social impression, person had greater effect on athletic impression, and neither person nor costume had a significant effect on intellectual impression.