Changing attire, changing impressions: How instructor attire influences undergraduate student perceptions

ABSTRACT

As time passes, different groups of students might perceive things differently than those who preceded them. The idea of what higher education should be, look like, feel like, and be reflected upon in the aftermath might be shifting from the worldviews which have existed in recent decades. Added to the generally changing nature of perspectives, students have endured a substantial paradigm shift caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which upended their anticipation of what the classroom will be like, including assessing their instructors and the content of those courses. Literature has suggested that nonverbal signals, including attire, can influence perceptions of others which further suggests that by manipulating how one dresses, they can have a strategic impact on how others perceive them. As such instructors in higher education may not be up to date with the knowledge of how students are perceiving them which in turn could affect engagement, grades, content utilization, evaluations, and enrollment, all of which have implications for the entire organizational apparatus. A quantitative methodology utilizing an experimental survey design was utilized with a convenience sample of 144 undergraduate students enrolled in Communication Studies courses at a large mid-Atlantic university to determine what styles of instructor attire influenced student perceptions of the instructor's credibility, approachability, and affective learning qualities. Data was analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) via SPSS which revealed that significant differences in attire for approachability and affective learning existed between attire styles, but not for credibility. While this study was helpful in updating knowledge of student perceptions of instructor attire, it was limited to only the perspectives of a Caucasian male and only the perceived characteristics of credibility, approachability, and affective learning qualities. Future researchers may want to replicate this study for greater generalizability, explore other instructor demographics and/or to add additional perceptual attributes or characteristics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)