Attire, Physical Appearance, and First Impressions: More Is Less Sharron J. Lennon Department of Home Economics, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 Franklin G. MillerSouth Central Community Health Center, Bloomington, Indiana 47401 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 targetphysicalappearance cue changes as a function of the number and type of other identifiable physical appearance cues available. In a procedure similar to t hat 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 developedfrom a factorial combination of four specific physicalappearance 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 theywere 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 hypothesizedthat 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 statisticalanalysis 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 impacton first impressions when presented with similar cues but willhave an increasing impact on first impressions when presentedwith dissimilar cues. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1-8 (1984) DOI: 10.1177/0887302X8400300101 Clothing Style Differences: Their Effect on the Impression of Sociability Barbara Hunt Johnson 8044 Gleason Rd. G-19, Knoxville, TN 37919 Richard H. Nagasawa Sociology Department Kathleen Peters Home Economics Department, Arizona State University, Tempe 85281 This research examines the effect of clothing style differences on the formation of the impression of sociability. A two-by-fourfactorial experiment was designed to measure the effect of fourcostumes on the impressions of sociability formed by males andfemales of a female peer. The sample included 60 male and 60female college students, from which 15 males and 15 females were assigned randomly to view each of the experimental costumes and to respond on an Impression Measure. Photographs of a female college student wearing two in-fashion costumes and two out- of-fashioncostumes were used to determine the degree of sociability attributedto her when she wore different clothing styles. Analysis ofvariance and the eta squared correlation ratio were usedto determine the type and strength of the relationships within the data. Both male and f emale college students evalu ated a female peer when she wore in-fashion clothing as being more sociable than when she wore out-of-fashion clothing. The effectof clothing style on the impression of sociability was foundto be statistically significant and conceptually important. (Home Economics Research Journal, September 1977, Vol. 6, No. 1) Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, 58-63 (1977) DOI: 10.1177/1077727X7700600107 Clothing and Social Identity Richard A. Feinberg Consumer Sciences and Retailing, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1262 Lisa Mataro Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ 07033 W. Jeffrey Burroughs Department of Psychology, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29631 Individuals are believed to use clothing to define and communicate their social identities to others. If this is the case, observers should be able to read and show consensus about the socialinformation present in clothingcues, and there should be substantial agreementbetween the perceived meaning of the cues to observers and the actual social identities of the individuals but only ifthe clothes are specifically selected by the individuals to representthemselves. In Study 1 observers were able to perceive the socialinformation presented in outfits selected byothers to be
