In business—and real estate—power players wear suits. Name of the game. That's the tradition. Yet, in recent years, business icons like Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs have crossed that tradition, rocking jeans and sweatshirts. Despite the new school of business attire, a recent Yale study reveals that not suiting up could cost you. Literally.
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In the study, the research team put 128 men—all dressed in a wide range of attire—through a series of fake negotiations over the sale of a factory. Not only did the suited ones come across as more confident and successful, they walked away with more money, the Wall Street Journal reports.
In total, men dressed in suits backed off their original offer an average of $830k. By comparison, negotiators in "neutral clothing" gave up $1.58M, about twice as much. Meanwhile, those in sweatpants lost the most, straying $2.81M—giving up nearly $2M more than their suited counterparts.
Michael W. Kraus, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management, says that in winner-take-all situations, wearing more formal attire sends others a signal that you're successful and confident in whatever you’re doing, leading the opposing party to back down more easily. [WSJ]
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