Dress In Casuals, Climb Ladder Of Success

                Wearing casual clothes and flouting the office dress code could make you seem more competent. Called the ‘red sneakers effect’, intentionally standing out from the crowd could send a positive message of status, confidence and power. While unintentional violations of normative codes and etiquette can indeed result in negative inferences and attributions, when the deviant behavior appears to be deliberate, it can lead to higher rather than lower status and competence inferences.

                Certain CEOs of major corporations have been known to appear without ties or even wearing sweatshirts at interviews and formal gatherings such as the World Economic Forum. These results, which hold even when controlling for gender and age, indicate formance within a given community is correlated with a stronger tendency to deviate from a conforming dress code (e.g. wearing jeans, sneakers, T-shirts rather than professional and formal attire).

                Corroborating their theory, the team undertook field research at an academic study where they rated the formality of clothes worn by 76 randomly selected attendees. After taking into account the attendee’s age, gender and years since receiving their PhD – the researchers found wearing jeans and t-shirts rather than smarter options to the conference positively correlated with research productivity. The study stressed the importance of making the casual clothes choice appear intentional so it becomes a power statement rather than an image of laziness.

More Men Will Go 'Green' If Products Are 'Masculine'

                Men can be persuaded to go “green” if environmental products are branded in a more “masculine” way. Studies show that men are not as environmentally friendly as women. Not too many “man caves” features solar panels, recycle bins or posters of electric cars. Researchers have now provided evidence that shoppers who engage in green behaviors are stereotyped by others as more feminine and also see themselves as more feminine.

                In a series of seven studies, researchers manipulated small details about the products, attempting to change men’s attitudes and behaviors. They found that men are more open to purchasing environmental products if their masculinity gets a branding boost. Previous research shows that men tend to be more concerned about maintaining a masculine identity than women are with their feminine identity.

Researchers therefore thought that men might be more open to environmental products if we made them feel secure in their masculinity, so they are less threatened by adopting a green product. Instead of using traditional marketing messages about green products (which are typically perceived as feminine), researchers changed the message to be more masculine in nature by changing the phrasing, colors, etc. when researchers did that, they found that men were more willing to ‘go green’.