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Researchers say that people who do not follow "normal fashion" are more respected. PhD. student Silvia Bellezza and two professors examined how we view the social status and competence of people whose dress sense is different. They discovered that the more strangely people dress, the more respect they get. Participants in the research said they thought people with "weirder" fashion were more unique. Rather than think badly of someone scruffily dressed, many people believe that dressing down is a sign of confidence. Ms Bellezza said: "If you're willing to deviate, there are upsides."

Bellezza conducted experiments to test how people reacted to non-conformity. People dressed differently at expensive boutiques in Milan. One group wore sports clothes, while the other dressed in expensive outfits. The sales assistants thought the ones in the sports gear were the bigger spenders. In another test, students rated an unshaven professor in a T-shirt above a professor in a suit. Bellezza says celebrity CEOs who dress down may have changed how we think. Examples of this are Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's hoodies and the late Steve Jobs' jeans and sneakers.