Vanessa Van Edwards describes how she dresses for teaching at Harvard: plain white background, navy V-neck, minimal jewelry, simple makeup. These understated choices signal competence nonverbally and shape how the audience treats her from the start.
I'm teaching a class at Harvard. What do I want my cues to be in my impression at Harvard? And I thought, I want to go mute so I can let my content speak for itself. So I have a white background, I have a very boring navy blue V-neck shirt on, almost no jewelry, and very simple makeup. I did that on purpose. I wanted to let my content speak for myself. So all these cues, they add up to how people treat you. I think that the cues you send to others tell them how they should treat you. Your background tells me I should treat you with high competence and respect. I'm probably not going to do much chitchat chat with you right off the bat because I see all those competence cues.
