Abstract
This research investigates how female students choose their graduation outfit and how clothing affects observers’ judgments. In Study 1, we manipulated the students’ graduation outfit so as to look professional or sexy. Female peers, adults, and professors formed a first impression about the students, their thesis work and guessed their graduation scores (thesis points and final mark). All participant groups judged the professionally dressed students as more competent, as having put more effort in their thesis, and as having obtained better scores than when the same students dressed sexy. In Studies 2 and 3 we replicated previous findings by using photos portraying real students in their actual graduation outfits. We found that sexy clothing, considered inappropriate for the occasion, affected estimated and actual graduation scores negatively and that this effect was mediated by perceived incompetence. Results are discussed with respect to women’s evaluation on the basis of their appearance.
Highlights
In Western societies it is common and culturally legitimate to consider women’s value in relation to the pleasantness of their appearance (Bartky, 1990; Loughnan and Pacilli, 2014)
Study 1 illustrates the risks associated with sexy clothing during thesis defense and graduation
These effects emerged for all participant groups, indicating that female peers, adults and professors made similar judgments based on the attire
Summary
In Western societies it is common and culturally legitimate to consider women’s value in relation to the pleasantness of their appearance (Bartky, 1990; Loughnan and Pacilli, 2014). Women tend to mold their public self-image through a sexualized appearance (Ward et al, 2016). Often, this sexualized appearance is required in an explicit way, such as when famous women were banned from the red carpet in Cannes or receptionists were sent home because they were not wearing high heels and, were not conforming to the “dress code” and norms associated to this specific context (Barnes, 2015; Johnston, 2016). Women constantly need to monitor their looks and modify their outfits depending on what is required in a given setting (Smolak et al, 2014).
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