The Effects of Striped Clothing on Perceptions of Body Size
Findings in recent studies indicate that, contrary to popular fashion advice, horizontal lines do not give the impression of larger body size (Thompson, 2008; Thompson & Mikellidou, 2009, 2011). However, in these studies stimuli were presented concurrently with vertical and horizontal
lines, and it is unclear whether the same effect is found in the absence of such perceptual anchors. In this study, 120 naive participants interacted with a female confederate wearing a dress with vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, or no stripes. Following this, they were asked to rate
the confederate's body size. Results showed that the confederate was rated as having a significantly larger body size when she was dressed in horizontal stripes than when she was wearing either vertical stripes or no stripes. There was no significant difference in body size perceptions when
she was wearing vertical stripes or no stripes. The practical implications of these results are discussed.
Keywords: BODY SIZE; HORIZONTAL STRIPES; PERCEPTIONS; STRIPED CLOTHING; VERTICAL STRIPES
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 September 2012
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