Dressing “in code”: Clothing rules,propriety, and perceptions

Does dressing in line with societal clothing rules make a woman appear more professional and competent? We used a within-subjects design and tested if participants rated women dressed in compliance with school and workplace clothing rules more positively than women not dressed in compliance with rules. Participants (N = 89) at a mid-sized mid-western university rated 10 pictures of women captured from the internet on 11 attributes. Participants rated the five women dressed following clothing rules higher on a composite measure of positive attributes (intelligent, competent, powerful, organized, efficient, and professional), F(1, 86) = 68.92, p < .001 η_p² = .45. Participant’s ratings did not correlate with their own self-reported levels of sexism. Participants’ gender was not a significant correlate. Our findings indicate that how students perceive women significantly relates to dressing in code. Participants rated women in less revealing and less tight clothing more positively.     

Enhanced cholinergic suppression of previously strengthened synapses enables the formation of self-organized representations in olfactory cortex

Computational modeling assists in analyzing the specific functional role of the cellular effects of acetylcholine within cortical structures. In particular, acetylcholine may regulate the dynamics of encoding and retrieval of information by regulating the magnitude of synaptic transmission at excitatory recurrent connections. Many abstract models of associative memory function ignore the influence of changes in synaptic strength during the storage process and apply the effect of these changes only during a so-called recall-phase. Efforts to ensure stable activity with more realistic, continuous updating of the synaptic strength during the storage process have shown that the memory capacity of a realistic cortical network can be greatly enhanced if cholinergic modulation blocks transmission at synaptic connections of the association fibers during the learning process. We here present experimental data from an olfactory cortex brain slice preparation showing that previously potentiated fibers show significantly greater suppression (presynaptic inhibition) by the cholinergic agonist carbachol than unpotentiated fibers. We conclude that low suppression of non-potentiated fibers during the learning process ensures the formation of self-organized representations in the neural network while the higher suppression of previously potentiated fibers minimizes interference between overlapping patterns. We show in a computational model of olfactory cortex, that, together, these two phenomena reduce the overlap between patterns that are stored within the same neural network structure. These results further demonstrate the contribution of acetylcholine to mechanisms of cortical plasticity. The results are consistent with the extensive evidence supporting a role for acetylcholine in encoding of new memories and enhancement of response to salient sensory stimuli.     

Power and provocativeness: The effects of subtle changes in clothing on perceptions of working women

The current study investigates the effects of subtle changes in professional women’s dress on women’s perceptions of power and competence. We replicate and extend Howlett, Pine, Cahill, Orakcioglu, and Fletcher’s (2015) research showing that women in provocative clothing are rated as less competent. We used a larger sample, tested a second independent variable, and fine-tuned the design for higher face validity. Participants (N = 198, 170 women and 29 men) from a Midwestern university in the USA rated four photographs of professionally dressed women whose blouses varied in the number of buttons left undone and whether they wore a camisole. We found main effects of buttons (undone/done) and camisoles (on/off) for participants perceptions of intelligence, competence, powerfulness, and on a global rating score. Results also showed significant interaction effects between buttons and camisoles on ratings of powerfulness. The results have many implications for how women dress professionally.