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What your shoes say about you

Footwear can have a powerful effect on first impressions.

By Allure Magazine Nov 27, 2012 5:01PM
Photo: Courtesy of AllureBy Lois B. Morris, Allure magazine

People often form opinions about strangers from a glance at their shoes. A study led by Omri Gillath, an associate professor of social psychology at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, has tested the accuracy of those assumptions.

Related: 10 Commandments of Mascara

Participants not only made good guesses about people's age and earning based on their shoes, they also correctly associated feminine-looking shoes with agreeableness, and dull, neutral-colored shoes with anxiety about being rejected or abandoned by others.

Related: The Top 21 Drugstore Beauty Bargains

Among the many wrong assumptions: that politically liberal people wear cheap, round-toed, unattractive shoes in poor repair, and that emotional stability correlates with the absence of high heels and pointy toes.

More from Allure:
Best of Beauty 2012
The 10 Most Gorgeous Hair-Color Ideas for Brunettes
The 12 Best Eye Creams




4Comments
Dec 4, 2012 8:57PM
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Mine would say," how bout we lose 30 pounds".
Dec 4, 2012 8:38PM
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heh...mine would say, "let's get muddy". But, that's because I wear hiking boots most of the time.
Feb 26, 2013 7:36PM
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Mine would say Columbia, cuz baby it's cold outside and I got some shoveling to do!

Dec 5, 2012 8:15AM
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Mine would say, "Let's eat and stop looking at my feet".  There may be some egg on my shoe from cooking for you.
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