You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists say.

[DerMißingno]

You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists say.

Researchers at the University of Kansas found that people were able to correctly judge a stranger's age, gender, income, political affiliation, emotional and other important personality traits just by looking at the person's shoes.

Lead researcher Omri Gillath found that by examining the style, cost, color of condition of the shoe, participants were able to guess about 90 percent of the of the owner's personal characteristics.

The study, published online in the August 2012 edition of the Journal of Research in Personality, consisted of 63 students who looked at photographs showing 208 different pairs of shoes that belonged to volunteers in the experiment.

Researchers had asked each of the volunteers to fill out a personality questionnaire and to provide their most frequently worn shoes for the experiment.

The 63 observers were then asked to look at each pair and guess the gender, age, social status and different personality traits of the owner, like whether the owner was an extrovert or introvert, liberal or conservative and the degree of their emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness.

Researchers found that observers did well in guessing characteristics of the volunteers in almost all categories, and concluded that people do wear shoes that reveal their personality, whether they intend to or not.

Expensive shoes belonged to high earners, flashy and colorful footwear belonged to extroverts and shoes that were not new but appeared to be spotless belonged to conscientious types.

While some of the clues like the ones already described were obvious, other clues were more surprising.

Practical and functional shoes generally belong to agreeable people, ankle boots fit with more aggressive personalities and uncomfortable looking shoes were worn by calm personalities.

Participants were able to most accurately judge a person's age, gender and income followed by their emotional stability and agreeableness.

In psychology, emotional stability is an umbrella term that includes a person's fear of abandonment, rejection issues and the ability to handle different kinds of relationships.

People with "attachment anxiety" or people that were most worried about their relationships generally had brand new and well-kept shoes. Researchers suggest that this may be because they worry so much about their appearance and what others may think of them.

Not surprisingly, liberal thinkers, who many think of as flip-flop wearing hippies, wear shabbier and less expensive shoes.

"Shoes convey a thin but useful slice of information about their wearers," the authors wrote. "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."

However, researchers noted that participants were not able to accurately judge that volunteers who wore the most boring looking shoes found it hard to form relationships.

Volunteers who had boring shoes described themselves as 'aloof and repressive' in their emotions and do not care what others think of them so they do not stand out in their general appearance.

"Shoes have great variety of styles, brands, looks, and functions. Because of this variety, shoes can carry individual difference information, but do they? We suggest that the answer is yes," they concluded.

However, psychologists noted that rarely some people will purposely choose shoes just to convey a certain public image that is different from their real personality.

Published by Medicaldaily.com

Source

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

Reminds me that Jeremy from Top Gear once accurately guessed which cars people had based on their shoes. Then he came to James May's shoes...

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

I guess you can judge a book by its cover, except it requires going into each other's shoes. I wonder what would the moralists' reactions to this research.

 

[Caitlin]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

Huh, my shoes would say I'm an bitter, right-wing extremist male. At least, that's what I'd assume if I had to judge a character based solely on the shoes.

I need more flipflops and sandals. :|

 

[Bandit Keith]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

This isn't new, just more solid evidence for a theory.

And I have yet to have organic proof that a study can't show(unless they release the entire process to the public/YouTube, since my shoes don't say anything about me, and that shoes often are a distraction from a person's core personality.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

Well, there's long been a joke in the lesbian community about "girls in comfortable shoes"....but that doesn't explain femmes...

I tend to have a penchant for really unusual-looking shoes. I couldn't care less about having the latest high-end shoes like some girls do, and I absolutely can't stand high heels. But I like having weird shoes, like this one pair of clogs that forms a cat when you put them together (one shoe has the head and the other has the tail) and another pair with a map of Africa on them. I also have a pair of flip-flops with the Swedish flag on them that my parents got for me in Sweden during the Euro 2004 soccer tournament. I guess what this says is I'm a very unusual person who likes cats and geography? That would be accurate.

I don't really think judging someone based on their clothes is a "judge a book by its cover" situation since what we wear is a choice that's expected to reflect on us. That's why you're going to dress differently going to a job interview or a first date than you would normally, because you care more about the impression you make. That's why as teenagers we experiment with wearing clothes that identify us as belonging to certain cliques we want to fit into, like "goth" or "prep" or whatever (I don't know what the labels are now, since I haven't been in high school for several years, and the one I went to was a small magnet school for nerds that didn't really have the usual cliques). I don't think it can be compared to judging someone on something like their face that they have no control over (unless they're Heidi Montag or one of the Kardashians). Of course your clothes reflect you are, same as your taste in music or books or friends reflect who you are.

So I file this under "did we really need a study for this?"

 

[Kyumorph]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

I'm an agreeable liberal with no attachment issues.

Or a hobo, whichever sounds better.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

I have, like, one pair of shoes that I wear seven days a week until they start falling apart and I have to get a new pair. I've just done this for many years, I don't know why. I guess I just don't really care about shoes. This paired with my "taste" in shoes (if I have any) would be pretty accurate for a double-thinking introverted type like myself, I think.

 

[Caitlin]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

I'm an agreeable liberal with no attachment issues.

Or a hobo, whichever sounds better.

If your shoes are ragged with little holes in them and you've kept them for well over 5 years, I'd say you have plenty of attachment issues.

Or, like me, you've just been too lazy to go out and buy new shoes.

 

[DerMißingno]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

I'm an agreeable liberal with no attachment issues.

Or a hobo, whichever sounds better.

If your shoes are ragged with little holes in them and you've kept them for well over 5 years, I'd say you have plenty of attachment issues.

Or, like me, you've just been too lazy to go out and buy new shoes.

Samesies, though I guess people's perception of me will change instantly when I finally decide to get new shoes.

 

[Kyumorph]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

I'm an agreeable liberal with no attachment issues.

Or a hobo, whichever sounds better.

If your shoes are ragged with little holes in them and you've kept them for well over 5 years, I'd say you have plenty of attachment issues.

Or, like me, you've just been too lazy to go out and buy new shoes.

It's most definitely the latter.

 

[Mitsuru]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

My shoes are black, covered in dirt and parts of dead weeds. They're otherwise comfortable, so I guess that counts as practical ("agreeable"). I don't remember how much they cost, but it was a sale, so... (Still way too much for shoes.)
My other pair of shoes that I mainly walk in--if I absolutely need them around the house--are black and white "OP" brand with holes in the sides of them (they're coming apart from the sole). I've only had them for two years, but they still function as covers for my soles, so (unlike my mom) I don't mind keeping them.

Pretty much fits the aloof, hippie thoughts I have in my filthy liberal mind, I guess. I only ever wear shoes when I absolutely have to, so my feet are sorta toughened up from walking on our gravel driveway.

 

[Pastellorama]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

... Didn't Forrest Gump already teach us about the stuff to be learned from a person's shoes?

 

[Baron Brixius]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

Interesting stuff. Can you guess what kind of shoes someone wears based on their character, I wonder? =P

 

[Eredar Warlock]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

According to the study, I'm an agreeable yet dirty liberal hippie. And I'm practical too. These people know NOTHING about me. About the only thing they got right is that I'm a bit of a recluse, but that's because I live outside of town and am an only child, more or less (I have siblings that I've never lived with).

I think my black, muddy shoes have more to do with the fact that I live in Northern Nevada where it's muddy, dirty, and full of weeds in the spring.

These studies are a waste of academic effort. This stuff is why the Asian countries are beating us.

 

[Pastellorama]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

I'm trying to figure out what my shoes say about me... so far they say "I shop for shoes at grocery stores and nothing colorful comes in my size"

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

... Didn't Forrest Gump already teach us about the stuff to be learned from a person's shoes?

Forrest Gump also taught us that "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you're going to get" but in my experience with chocolate boxes, that's not true. Sometimes you can pretty accurately predict which ones you're going to get.

 

[Pastellorama]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

... Didn't Forrest Gump already teach us about the stuff to be learned from a person's shoes?

Forrest Gump also taught us that "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know which one you're going to get" but in my experience with chocolate boxes, that's not true. Sometimes you can pretty accurately predict which ones you're going to get.

Well I wish I had your ability, cuz every time I get a chocolate box I wind up eating the coconut filled one. Blegh!

 

[Still Probably Modio]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

This is why I'm going barefoot from now on. Just the screw with phsychologists.

 

[DerMißingno]

Re: You can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes, psychologists s

This is why I'm going barefoot from now on. Just the screw with phsychologists.

That probably will say something about you as well.