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Research Report
The Effect of Enclothed Cognition
on Empathic Responses and Helping
Behavior
Belén López-Pérez,
1
Tamara Ambrona,
2
Ellie L. Wilson,
1
and Marina Khalil
1
1
School of Psychology, Plymouth University, Plymouth, Devon, UK
2
Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Burgos, Spain
Abstract: Based on the enclothed cognition framework, we tested whether the physical experience of wearing a tunic and identifying it with a
nursing scrub may enhance empathic and helping responding, compared to the solely physical experience of wearing the scrub or associating
with its symbolic meaning. Results of Study 1 (United Kingdom; n= 150) showed that participants who wore a tunic and identified it with a
nursing scrub reported higher empathic concern and helped more in a punctual scenario, compared to the other two conditions. Results of
Study 2 (Spain; n= 100) supported findings from Study 1 and showed that participants who wore a tunic and identified it with a nursing scrub
volunteered more hours and showed higher response latency for altruistic motivation relevant words. Thus, the current research supports the
enclothed cognition framework and shows that it also affects vicarious emotions and prosocial behavior.
Keywords: enclothed cognition, clothing, empathic concern, helping
Research in psychology has extensively investigated the
factors that may lead people to experience empathic con-
cern and to help others (see Batson, 2011 for an overview).
Although most research has been focused on the explicit
regulation of these processes (Batson, 2011), some studies
have shown that they can be changed through subtle
priming techniques (Nelson & Norton, 2005). For instance,
Macrae and Johnston (1998) showed that priming partici-
pants with helping-related words made them more likely
to help someone to pick up spilled pens. In another study,
Nelson and Norton (2005) showed that priming participants
with the category superhero made them more likely to
commit to future volunteering.
Early research on priming and prosocial responding
focused on the effects of clothes. Namely, two studies
showed that wearing a nursing uniform was linked to the
reduced likelihood of administering electric shocks
(Gergen, Gergen, & Barton, 1973; Johnson & Downing,
1979). Although these studies provided a good first step,
their results did not determine whether the obtained effects
were due to an increase in empathic emotional responding.
Furthermore, these studies did not test whether their
motivation to not administer the shocks was altruistic
(i.e., the goal of helping was focused on increasing others’
well-being) or egoistic (i.e., the goal of helping was focused
on reducing one’s own distress or receiving rewards).
Finally, from these studies it is not possible to know
whether the effects would be replicated if participants were
only exposed to the primes (i.e., nursing uniforms), without
actually having to wear them.
Recent research on the effect of clothes as primes con-
ducted by Adam and Galinsky (2012)hasshownqualitative
differences between wearing and seeing an item of clothing
when assigning a meaning to it. Results from their research
showed that people wearing a white coat and identifying it
as a doctor’s coat showed increased sustained attention,
compared to those who just identified with the coat or
who wore the coat but identified it as a painter’scoat.Adam
and Galinsky (2012) argue that their enclothed cognition
framework is actually different from embodied cognition
because the link between the physical experience and its
symbolic meaning is indirect, as it is the item of clothing
that carries the symbolic meaning not the actual physical
experience of wearing the piece of clothing. A similar study
showed that students wearing a white lab coat displayed
higher attentional control toward problem solving
(Van Stockum & De Caro, 2014). Overall, results from
these two studies have shown that wearing and identifying
a clothing item with a specific meaning may involve
cognitive consequences. However, these previous studies
Ó2016 Hogrefe Publishing Social Psychology (2016), 47(4), 223–231
DOI: 10.1027/1864-9335/a000273
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