V Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2013

The effectiveness of communication contacts first of all is determined by the comprehensibility of the words and other elements of verbal communication. Nevertheless it is also very important for the interlocutor to be able to interpret correctly the visual information, i.e., partner's facial expressions and gestures, body movements, posture, distance, pace and tone of speech. All information received through the senses goes to the brain in the form of sensations. There it is interpreted on the basis of the past experience, motivation, and emotion, and organized in a convenient form by arranging into classes, groups, kinds, etc. Researches show that almost each adult who has sufficient experience of communication is capable to define precisely almost all characteristics of the partner. Appearance can serve as information on the social status of the person, his profession (a single-breasted coat, office suit, a uniform, and doctor’s smock), and life events (a wedding dress, hospital attire). The clothes can draw attention, make a favorable impression, and help to get lost with a crowd, or spoil everything (a t-shirt and ripped jeans – at the interview / an evening dress – in a shop). Clothes, as a special language, possess high potential of changes thanks to which it is capable to transfer all the richness of communicative messages. The role of the clothes is especially great at short-term contacts. The formation of the first impression begins with clothes even if we soon forget how the person was dressed. Certain types of clothes are traditionally associated with a certain social status, political orientation, a measure of conservatism, sociability degree, etc. Everyone knows about the influence of clothes on perception of physical appeal and sexuality of a person. They have proved the correlation of the clothes with such characteristics of a person as snobbery, shyness, relation to an opposite sex, naturalness or affectation. At first sight purely intuitively the person dressed in the same style, as we, becomes closer and clearer to us. The only fact that he/she likes the same things, which seem beautiful to us, creates an illusion that we both think and look at the world in a similar way. Now that rigid instructions and restrictions have disappeared practically in all cultures, the role of clothes in coding a social status of the person nevertheless remains significant. Stereotypes in perception of clothes are very steady: representatives of a business community and high-ranking government officials prefer so-called conservative clothes style, both men, and women. So it is possible to speak about the existence of informal sign system of clothes which elements are simultaneously the signs defining the formation of the first impression about the status of a person.

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