They say that dressing for success is an important way to boost one’s self-confidence, but what if clothing could actually improve one’s perceptions of you? The hypothesis is by no means novel that wearing branded items alters the way others perceive you. Recently, two social psychologists at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, Rob Nelissen and Marijn Meijers, conducted a series of experiments that tried to quantify the positive effect that wearing designer label good had on interactions with others. The Economist shares some of the more salient findings of the experiment.

In fact, when trying to recruit volunteers for a fake study within the study, wearing a branded label helps improve response rates:

“To see if this perception had an effect on actual behaviour, the researchers did a number of other experiments. For instance, one of their female assistants asked people in a shopping mall to stop and answer survey questions. One day she wore a sweater with a designer logo; the next, an identical sweater with no logo. Some 52% of people agreed to take the survey when faced with the Tommy Hilfiger label, compared with only 13% who saw no logo.”

When playing a classic negotiation game in which one person gets to decide how much money to transfer to a partner, those who wore a designer shirt got 36% more money than someone wearing a plain shirt. This result was replicated in varying degrees to other aspects of human interaction from charity to job performance. For example, wearing a Lacoste shirt can command you a 9% higher starting salary at a job interview.

This study strengthens the assertion that brand equity posses real symbolical power over others.  Time Magazine suggests that carrying around an Hermes Birkin could help get a higher salary and better job recommendation. I think there’s a lot of interesting potential research here that could really help improve both our understanding of how fashion functions in society as well as help brands improve their business operations.