Psychology: About shoe myths and nice colleagues karriere.at karriere_blog

The first impression counts and is made within seconds. New colleagues are quickly and unconsciously "scanned", pink high heels on the first day at work are remembered, as are men's sandals with socks. Because external factors such as hairstyle, clothing, tattoos and shoes have a great influence on how we assess a person. According to the motto "Clothes make the man", this has already been well researched, but scientists have identified a need to catch up on shoes. For this reason, psychologists from the US university asked over 200 students for a photo of their favorite shoes in a study. Furthermore, they were given a series of questionnaires: Through these, the researchers obtained socio-demographic, political and personality-related information. Then other students were asked to use the shoe photos to draw conclusions about the personality of the respective wearer.

Colourful does not mean extraverted

The results are exciting: the observers were mostly in agreement in their assessments, but the assessments mostly did not correspond to reality or the self-image of the shoe owners. This means: We all have a relatively fixed and similar attitude from high heels to flip flops to men's sandals. The colleague with the branded moccasins is judged differently than the table neighbor with open sandals. That's just the way it is. But what we humans seem to want to read out of shoes is often simply wrong. According to the study, for example, we quickly assess people with colorful or light-colored shoes as extraverted. In fact, according to the authors, the color has nothing to do with openness and sociability. People with worn or high heels, on the other hand, did describe themselves as extroverts.

What shoes know about fear of commitment

In terms of other personality traits, according to the researchers, the self-image and the image of others matched: People who have difficulties making long-term commitments would prefer shoes that look like bought new. Socially very agreeable people, on the other hand, would rather use practical, functional and affordable "kicks". However, the psychologists emphasize that the study results must be treated with caution - also due to the comparatively uncertain self-assessment survey. A look at the group of colleagues or at the feet of colleagues in the karriere.at office is enough to be able to refute these assumptions as well. Because the very employee who would have earned the “Colleague of the Month” award from January to December because she is conscientious, always takes care of others and never forgets a birthday, does not like practical, functional and affordable shoes at all. And those male colleagues who have been in long and happy relationships make every shoe salesman happy: they own more pairs than some female colleagues and since they are only worn a few days a year, the shoes of the bonded employees always look new.

The karriere.at shoe check

So, what do our shoes say about us? On the one hand, that the heat wave is not over yet and we don't have an ice age either. On the other hand, that we are a creative team - it has to be like that, because no two shoes are alike. The wearer of the light moccasins, for example, is both: sociable and very socially acceptable. Just like everyone else. The flip-flop wearer was just hot, the red Waldviertel love the camera because red shoes are just beautiful. To be fair, however, it must also be mentioned that not all offices have such freedom of footwear and of course it always depends on the task which footwear is appropriate. In order to be able to make more correct assessments of shoe personality, you should meet your colleagues more often in your free time - or secretly take a look in their shoe closet.

Photo credits: thedaft / source Photocase, karriere.at/Frenner