Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived competence from faces

Re:Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived compet... by thom on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @07:07AM (#21751705)

While I agree with you, and I too actively avoid people or institutions where these sorts of status games have taken hold, it's important to understand how privileged it is to be able to opt out. Some people in precarious financial or social situations have to navigate this world to live, and understanding these biases is helpful to them. Obviously in the ideal world we would combat these biases or at least their ability to affect other people's wellbeing, but we're quite far from that world at the moment.

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Re:Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived compet... by MisterTea on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @07:27AM (#21751798)

> Some people in precarious financial or social situations have to navigate this world to live, and understanding these biases is helpful to them.

I'm reminded of low income people I've known who struggled to save for a suit to wear to a job interview for yet another low paying job at a factory. Privilege indeed.

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Re:Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived compet... by me_me_me on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @07:23AM (#21751781)

For their woes they get an extra 0 at the end of their payslip.

I am not really too concerned with those type of people.

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Re:Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived compet... by thom on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @07:41AM (#21751878)

I'm talking about people who might be one bad interaction away from unemployment, homelessness or losing their kids.

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Re:Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived compet... by zozbot234 on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @07:46AM (#21751905)

For such people, it's a lot more important to signal familiarity with bourgeois/middle-class values than economic status per se. So it's one instance where one's outfit might actually convey useful info to outsiders. But even then, they don't have to expend huge amounts of money/effort; they just have to not screw it up.

If you look at photos from many decades or even, say, a century ago, back when middle-class values were truly common across the socio-economic spectrum, you'll see it was a lot more common for even low-income folks to wear suits or at least semi-casual wear. The point was not to waste resources or signal wealth; everyone knew that these people were quite poor. It was all about values.

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