It’s known that people’s thinking becomes more abstract when they adopt formal, polite language, so a team led by Michael L. Slepian of Columbia University set out to discover whether the same thing happens when people put on formal clothing. And indeed it does. Research participants wearing formal attire scored 5.04 on a 1-to-10 scale of a type of thought process that measures abstract thinking, versus 3.99 for those wearing casual clothing. Abstract thinking facilitates the pursuit of long-term goals over short-term gains.

(Source: Social Psychological & Personality Science)

• Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, June 22nd, 2015*

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