The Poser Effect: To Master A New Skill, Dress Like Someone Who Already Has

A sharp, young professional walks into an empty room—in front of him, a stark white overcoat. He reads a note placed on it before dawning the jacket and sitting down. In the room next door, another equally sharp, young professional does the same.

After a moment, an expressionless man walks into each room and holds up a card. It looks like this:

The man tells each seated candidate, “list the colors—not the words—you see on this card as fast as you can.”

Which quick-witted professional will excel at this tricky test, and which will struggle through it? If you think there’s no way to tell, think again. I’ll give you a hint: It’s all in the note that was attached to the jacket.

Keep reading to learn how that little note caused one person excel above the other, and how the way you think about the clothes you wear will produce the same effect every day in your own life. If you’ve ever worried about coming off as a poser[1], this is for you.

The Lab Coat Experiment: Why The Story Of Your Clothes Matters

The story above isn’t a hypothetical one. It was a real experiment carried out by a couple of researchers at Northwestern University[2]. We all know the clothes you wear psychologically changes the way other people perceive you. But what Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky—the researchers who conducted the test—wanted to know is, “Can the clothes you wear change your perception of yourself and change your own behavior?”

To test it, they collected some college students and gave them a white lab coat to wear before performing the cognitive test above[3]. They told the students, “Name the colors—not the words—you see on this card as fast as you can.”

One group excelled—they performed almost 50% better—while the other struggled. But why?

Before the test, the researchers told members of one group, “You’re wearing a doctor’s lab coat.” The other group? They were told, “You’re wearing a painter’s coat.”

This simple prompt, “You’re wearing a doctor’s lab coat,” affected the students’ perception of themselves so much they blew away the test results of the other group.

Everyone, of course, knew they were neither doctors nor painters. But it didn’t matter. It also didn’t matter they were wearing the same jacket. Simply believing they were wearing a doctor’s lab coat was enough to transfer some of the qualities we see in doctors to the group. In this case, an attention to detail and careful analysis.

There’s a fancy, scientific name for this effect; it’s called enclothed cognition, but I like to call it The Poser Effect: Wearing the clothes of people you admire will transfer some of their qualities directly to you.

How To Harness The Poser Effect To Master A New Skill

In the Northwestern study, they found dressing like a doctor actually transferred some of the qualities of a real, professional doctor to normal, everyday people like you and me. The reality, though, is we probably already have those qualities, but wearing a jacket that conveys professionalism encourages us to try a little harder to put them to work.

If that’s the case, there are a lot of other qualities you can bring out in yourself just by dressing the part. What if the researchers, instead, had given one group some baggy clothes and the other a fitted suit before asking them to test their skateboarding skills? Who would have excelled?

If there’s a skill or a quality you want to develop in yourself, dressing like someone who already possesses it is a proven way to develop it yourself.

If you want to be a better plumber, buy yourself a pair of overalls and start looking at pipes.
If you want to master skateboarding, start wearing khaki shorts and t-shirts like Tony Hawk.
If you want to build a tech company, dress like someone who already has.

Whatever it is you want, find someone who embodies it, and dress like them.

Do the clothes you wear actually bestow upon you some magical power? Do they give you the skills and qualities you want? Of course not. But what they do do is prime your brain to be more disciplined in developing them.

And it’s better that way. You may start out feeling like a poser but, over time, you’ll be able to look back and say, “I did it myself.” And, when you change your clothes, your hard-won skills will come with you.

1. Poser (noun): a person who acts in an affected manner in order to impress others
2. Enclothed Cognition
3. Technically, this is called a Stroop Test. It’s named after John Ridley Stroop—one of the first psychologists to document its confusing effect.