"Enclothed Cognition" - Fashion meets Cognitive Function

| Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012
Medelita Embroidery"Enclothed Cognition", a recent study published by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, supports the theory that what you wear affects your aptitude and performance. Research subjects wearing white doctors coats performed significantly better than their peers on a "Stroop test" - a test that challenges cognition by displaying the name of a word in a conflicting color. During a Stroop test, participants are asked to say the word, rather than name the color, and those wearing lab coats made about half as many errors as those wearing street clothes. But will any white coat fit the bill? Some participants were given a lab coat, yet informed that it was an artist's coat. Interestingly, those participants scored below average - supporting the idea that it's not just the clothes, but the symbolic meaning behind them that affects us on a cognitive level. “It’s the simultaneous combination of the posture or the clothes and the symbolic meaning of them that matters,” said researcher, Adam Galinsky. While we're a fashion forward company, it's our primary desire to ensure that our customers feel confident and polished in their medical garments - a task that seems impossible when you're forced to wear boxy, unprofessional lab coats and scrubs. Many of our female colleagues have commented that traditional lab coats leave them feeling as though they're wearing their father's coat . . . hardly the right image for a knowledgeable professional who has dedicated what seems like centuries to their career. With this is mind, our dedication to providing medical professionals with garments deserving of their stature becomes even more rewarding. For us, it's not about the bottom line, but about ensuring that your lab coat reflects your prestige and aptitude . . . something that's not just a matter of fashion anymore.