Logos Have Serious Social Perks, Study Finds
Attached to your Louis Vuitton monogram-print Speedy or F-adorned Fendi scarf? A new study shows that visible designer labels can bring the wearer serious benefits.
According to Rob Nelissen and Marijn Meijers of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, wearing clothes with clear labels can result in “co-operation from others, job recommendations, and even the ability to collect more money when soliciting for charity,” reports The Economist.
In the study, people were shown a picture of a man in a polo shirt with no logo, a designer logo (Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger logos were used), or a “non-luxury” logo. When volunteers viewed the designer logo, the man in the photo was rated as being of a higher status and wealthier.
In another experiment, people in a shopping mall were more likely to stop and answer survey questions when the woman asking was wearing a sweater with a designer logo, and in another, volunteers rated a man in a video job interview as more suitable for the job when he was wearing a designer logo.
“If everyone agrees something has high status, then it does,” reports The Economist. “But that agreement often transfers the status from the thing to the label … People react to designer labels as signals of underlying quality. Only the best can afford them.”
Get the full story at Economist.com.
