Would you trust you if you didn’t know you?
I was walking out of the supermarket yesterday and the elderly woman in front of me dropped her shopping bag. The bag had a garish design and so was easily recognizable. That’s why I didn’t expect the reaction I got when I handed the bag back to its owner. It happened in a second, but as I handed her the bag I saw the look in her eyes – trepidation, confusion, and then recognition. She did not know me, and so her initial reaction was wary, almost fearful. It took her a second or two to process what she was seeing – a stranger, handing her something, and that something turned out to be hers.
Even though the bag was hers, she needed to process me as well. Who was I? Was I a threat? The judgment came quickly. I was wearing a suit. I was not wearing a tie though. I asked myself if a tie would have made a difference. Could a tie have slightly reduced the time needed to decide I was no threat?
Does it sound silly to suggest a tie could make that much difference to my credibility? During the 70s some interesting experiments were carried out in New York. Americans tend to be good about waiting for the WALK light before they walk across the street – jaywalking laws ensure that. But this series of experiments found that it was possible to encourage waiting groups to cross illegally against the DON’T WALK light. All it took was a person breaking from the waiting group, and crossing the street illegally, and others broke their usual behaviour pattern and followed. But here’s the interesting part. The effect was strongest when the person crossing the street first was male, tall, white and, crucially, well dressed. A suit and tie made all the difference.
Let’s put aside height, which we can’t do much about. Ditto gender and race which hopefully are less of an issue in the 21st century! Business dress makes a difference to credibility and to trust. IBM knew this of course. Back in the 1950s Buck Rogers Jr. had not only the IBM sales force, but also the service technicians, dress in dark suits, white shirts and ties.
The white shirt rule no longer applies. But overall, conservative dress helps people immediately process us as being trustworthy. Forget fashion. Think trust. And next time I see an elderly woman drop a bag, I’ll think personal branding.
Kieran Bird
