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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 8 |
| Time required | Average (about one week) |
| Material Availability | Readily available |
| Cost | Low ($20 - $50) |
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Abstract
There's an old saying that "the clothes make the man" (or woman, we're quick to add nowadays). How true do you think this is? Here's a project with one approach for finding out.Objective
The purpose of this project is to see whether randomly selected people at a shopping mall respond differently when asked the time by someone dressed up as a "tomboy" or a "young lady."
Introduction
Your clothing and appearance can say a great deal about you before you even begin to interact with someone. So much so that the science of "dressing for the part" has become an important factor for witnesses and defendents in the courtroom, job interviews, political candidates, and others who are trying to make a good first impression. This project tests the intersection of psychology and fashion, by investigating whether a change in clothing can truly make a difference in the way people respond to a subject.
Terms, Concepts and Questions to Start Background Research
Fashion theory, non-verbal communication, psychology of clothes
Bibliography
During the 1970's there were many studies that were conducted on the influence of attire on others' perceptions of an individual making a request. The following graduate thesis offers a great summary of these research studies in the "Review of Literature" section and a detailed listing of sources in the "Bibliography:"
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04302001-182841/unrestricted/siwon_thesis.pdf
Materials and Equipment
- Video camera
- "Tomboy" outfit—jeans, t-shirt, tennis shoes, baseball cap
- "Young lady" outfit—skirt, blouse, dress shoes
- Assistant to run video camera
- Subjects for testing
Experimental Procedure
Procedures:
- Select a location to intercept a random sampling of people. Some possible locations are a busy street corner, a shopping mall, outside of a grocery store. Make sure you run the experiment at the same time of day in each of the locations.
- In order to ensure a consistent review of each of the interactions, you should video tape each of the events.
- Ask people the time dressed as a "tomboy." The next day, go back to the same location and ask people the time dressed as a "young lady."
- Review the video, note down your results, and analyze the data.
Variations
Asking to borrow small amounts of change, testing responses to different social stereotypes (the jock, the nerd, the businesswoman, the mom, etc.)
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Sociology Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2005-08-31 15:11:53
Career Focus
If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring careers in Sociology.
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Sociologist Any time there is more than one person in a room, there is potential for a social interaction to occur or for a group to form. Sociologists study these interactions—how and why groups and societies form, and how outside events like health issues, technology, and crime affect both the societies and the individuals. If you already like to think about how people interact as individuals and in groups, then you're thinking like a sociologist! |
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