Dressing for the job
Enclothed cognition is a psychological phenomenon where the clothing you wear influences your cognitive processes and psychological states. This concept suggests that what you wear can affect your mental processes, perception, performance and behaviour in ways that align with the symbolic meaning of that clothing.
For example:
Wearing a lab coat might improve attention to detail and careful thinking (when people associate it with scientific work)
Wearing formal business attire might enhance feelings of authority and abstract thinking
Wearing workout clothes might increase motivation to exercise
Wearing pyjamas - whilst comfortable - might prepare the brain for bed!
The effect occurs when two conditions are met:
The clothing has symbolic meaning to the wearer i.e. ‘I associate this piece of clothing with doing this activity’ (gym kit being a good example of this)
The person physically wears the clothing (simply looking at it isn't enough!)
This phenomenon was demonstrated in a 2012 study by Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky, where participants wearing a doctor's lab coat showed increased attention and care compared to those wearing identical coats described as "painter's coats".
In a workplace culture context, this principle can be leveraged to help you adopt appropriate mindsets for different roles or tasks - what's sometimes called "dressing for the job" or creating intentional dress codes that support desired behaviours and mental states.
That’s not to say that you need to wear a power suit to be authoritative in your role or have a rack of clothes on hand for each task (however much some of you may enjoy that!) However, a little thought into what you wear may go a long way to preparing your brain for the task that needs to be done.
