Wearing a white lab coat makes people more attentive, even when they don't know it's supposed to be a doctor's coat. Susan Britton shows how to use this effect: pick clothes that match the mental state you need today, say your intention out loud, and watch how it changes your focus and mood.
Greetings, fellow human beings. Susan here with a tip on encouraging your brain. So I have a friend who's taking a master class in fashion, and she passed along kind of an interesting piece of information that really tickled my brain. And it has to do with how our brains react based on what it is that we wear. We've all heard that saying, "Clothes make the man," or person. Well, this researcher took some subjects and they— he gave them a white lab coat to wear and— or a white coat to wear and told them that it had belonged to a doctor. And those that thought that they were wearing a coat that had belonged to a doctor became more attentive, whereas another group of subjects were told that they were wearing a garment that was a painter's coat— white coat, painter's coat. They were not nearly as attentive. So psychologists call this phenomenon "enclothed cognition," and you can read more about it at the Atlantic article that's associated with this video. So I got to pondering that, and I thought, "How interesting that cultural biases can impact our thinking like that." And you might be listening and thinking, "Well, I wouldn't be influenced by that," and you might not be. The point we can suss out here, though, is the meaning-making that we associate associate with the clothing that we are choosing to wear. So, application. If you're thinking about some sort of a project and that project requires creativity, maybe you want to think about looking at your wardrobe and donning an outfit that makes you feel very creative. If you're working on a project that requires you to be attentive and focused and responsible, You might look at your wardrobe and consider what outfit that would make you feel sort of fastidious and on task. So for some, that might be like a button-down collar. It might be subdued colors. It's your call. So here's an invitation to explore. Think about what your calendar holds for tomorrow. Pick a theme for the important activities, and then explore your wardrobe and consider what best supports that theme. And then once you choose that, speak out loud, hold that piece of clothing, and saying, "I'm choosing this particular piece of clothing because it makes me feel powerful or creative or on task," or whatever it is that your theme is for the day. And then see what you notice.
Susan’s ICF Educator Award | The Heart Behind the Impact Katy Montgomery, PCC
