Formal Dress Can Signal Competence, but not Always Congeniality

Sebastian Oliver et al., publishing in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, found across three experiments involving 1,361 students that instructors who were formally dressed were perceived as more competent but less amiable than instructors who were dressed informally. Those impressions influenced how students evaluated the instructors and whether they said they would enroll in their courses, although when presented with evidence of success the competence disadvantage associated with dressing informally was sometimes reduced.

In other words: Clothing can convey multiple signals, and everything is contextual: informal attire may make someone appear less proficient but more approachable. Depending on our objective, that signal could be an asset or a liability, so we should choose deliberately.