University of Kansas research shows your shoes define you
New research out of KU suggests that you can put far less time into selecting your clothes or accessories and styling your hair in an effort to establish your signature look. Your shoes, it turns out, give away who you really are. KU’s Department of Psychology has published a study indicating that strangers can guess 90 percent of details about you based only by your kicks.
Lead researcher Omri Gillath showed 63 students photographs of 208 pairs of shoes that belonged to volunteers. The students were then told to guess all sorts of things about the shoe owner, including age, gender, political affiliation, social status and emotional stability. And the researchers found the students nailed it most of the time. Participants accurately guessed about 90 percent of the owners’ personal information.
“Shoes serve a practical purpose, and also serve as nonverbal cues with symbolic messages. People tend to pay attention to the shoes they and others wear,” the researchers wrote. The only thing I know that my scuffed up shoes say about me is that I could really use the services of Andy Dwyer.
