Shutterstock

There are a few unwritten rules when it comes to dressing for certain occasions. It would be odd, for example, if you turned up to a christening in just leather underpants and a fishnet shirt. However, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, this behaviour is potentially jeopardising your career prospects. "We proposed that, under certain conditions, nonconforming behaviours can be more beneficial to someone than simply trying to fit in. In other words, when it looks deliberate, a person can appear to have a higher status and sense of competency," write authors Silvia Bellezza, Francesca Gino, and Anat Keinan of Harvard University.

The paper examined five separate lab and field studies on the role of nonconformity in different populations. The pooled results revealed that the majority of the test subjects perceived a greater sense of competence and status in people who were nonconformist than those who conformed. Even something as simple as, say, a lawyer wearing brightly coloured socks, would have been enough to heighten most of the test subjects' opinions of the individual.


In one study, those who participated in the test were asked to rank the perceived professional status of a Professor from a top-tier university against that of a Professor from their local college. The Professor from the university wore a t-shirt and a large beard -- his college-based counterpart was sporting a suit and had no beard. More status and competency was -- in keeping with the expectations of the study -- attributed to the unshaven T-shirt-wearing Professor rather than the clean-shaven Professor from the local college.

In order to see this embed, you must give consent to Social Media cookies. Open my cookie preferences.

The authors suggest this research could be used beyond the individual, aiding in both niche and mainstream brands looking to court the "nonconformist" buyer, capitalising on an ironically growing trend to appear nonconformist. What's more, if the nonconformist brand is in a premium price bracket, it allows the buyer to signal further that not only can they afford an alternative conformist product, but that they have purposely opted not to buy it, making it a matter of consumer choice and a statement of individuality rather than a forced necessity brought on by poverty. "A key question for companies is to understand how consumers can demonstrate that they are intentionally not conforming through brands and products." conclude the authors. You can see this reasoning manifested -- in part -- in the latest Guinness ad.

Those men with their trend-bucking colourful socks and bright trousers are the "masters of their own fate"... Now buy some Guinness and express your own nonconformity!