Does wearing a white coat make you smarter?

[eridani]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/new-study-what-you-wear-could-affect-how-well-you-work/2011/04/01/gIQAssHomR_blog.html?utm_source=Washington+Wire+March+2012+-+Issue+I+&utm_campaign=Washington+Wire&utm_medium=email

A recently published study from professors at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University shows that when research subjects wore a scientist’s or medical doctor’s white coat, they performed better on a test known as the “Stroop test,” which asks participants to say the color of a word being shown on a flash card, rather than the word itself. The group who donned white jackets identified as lab coats performed better on conflicting flash cards, such as when the word “blue” is spelled in red letters. Those wearing the lab coats, which people typically associate with care and attentiveness, made about half as many errors as their peers.

Interestingly, the study subjects who wore similar white coats but were told they were artists’ coats did not perform above average. As a result, Galinsky says their findings show that it’s not just the experience of wearing the clothes, but the symbolic meaning they hold for people. “It’s the simultaneous combination of the posture or the clothes and the symbolic meaning of them that matters,” he says.

[rocktivity]

1. I rest my case.

rocktivity

[Marie Marie]

2. Here it is - my biggest laugh of the evening

Thank you rocktivity!!

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Lab coats transformed those two into

Igor and Igor.

[Owlet]

4. White coats make smart people smarter

They don't do much for the dumb ones, though.

[Scuba]

7. Another debunking! Well done!

[Kadie]

8. LOL!

That picture will never cease to entertain me. Thanks for the laugh.

[krispos42]

5. Looks like... not

[Kablooie]

6. I agree. He looks very smart.

[bananas]

9. Reminds me of "Dress for Success" and "As A Man Thinketh"

"It’s the simultaneous combination of the posture or the clothes and the symbolic meaning of them that matters"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_for_Success_%28book%29

Dress for Success is a 1975 book by John T. Molloy about the effect of clothing on a person's success in business and personal life. It was a bestseller and was followed in 1977 by The Women's Dress for Success Book.[1] Together, the books popularized the concept of "power dressing."[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_a_Man_Thinketh

As a Man Thinketh is a literary essay of James Allen, published in 1902.
...
The title is influenced by a verse in the Bible from the Book of Proverbs chapter 23 verse 7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
...
Chapter 1 starts with the quote from Dhammapada where effect of karmas is explained.
...
The lyrics to the song Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts by Funkadelic are loosely based on this book.
...

And here is "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" by Funkadelic:

[davidhaslanded]

10. I read something about this

in a Psychology book once.

[dipsydoodle]

11. Back in the sixties

I was TV engineer with a large UK rental company. We had about 6 white coats each which were professionally laundered and starched regularly. The starch was such that we had to fight to get our arms down the sleeves. They were generally regarded as being covers for the multitude of sins which lurked underneath them. In other words it didn't really matter what you were wearing - the coats created a halo effect.