What your T-shirt says about you

May 16th, 2008

This year there’s a rash of psychological quizzes appearing that claim to be able to tell a lot about people from the clothing they wear.  In fact, this kind of questionnaire, called pop psychology, is totally unreliable for a number of reasons: not least being that it never gives more than four answers so you find yourself shoe-horned into a category of person that might not actually match you very well at all.  I shall never forget sitting in an airport where my flight had been delayed and watching a group of elderly Catholic nuns fill in the quizzes in a woman’s magazine.  One question was ‘what would you do if a man asked you out to dinner and you didn’t have time to go home from work and change’. They crossed out the (a), (b) and (c) answers and wrote in ‘Go to Mother Superior and confess I had been led astray’! Anyway, the point is, that about the only items of clothing that are at all reliable in terms of psychological assessment are shoes and T-shirts.

Why?

Because both are relatively cheap, not bounded by social convention (for example a grey suit is de rigeur for a wedding, but unacceptable for work in the Square Mile) and come in a wide enough range of sizes, styles and prices to allow the individual to make choices related to their personality (unlike, say, hats, which tend to come in at most four styles and six colours every season).  So what, basically, does a T-shirt say about you? 

• Pink and glittery = assuming you’re a woman, you are fun to be with, but probably not considered mature or responsible by your colleagues (however, a man in a pink T-shirt is seen as unreliable by women, but reliable by men – go figure!)

• With a slogan = you need to communicate, often having strong political or social views and think humour is important to social interactions

• Branded = you need reassurance about your choices in life.

 T-shirt courtesy of psd

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Entry Filed under: T-shirt news, Fashion, Printing