When Is a White Coat More Than Just a Coat?

In yesterday's Times, there was a rather interesting article about clothes and self-perception which outlined a phenomenon that researchers are calling "enclothed cognition," defined as "the effects of clothing on cognitive processes." In a nutshell, subjects given a white coat to wear which they believe belongs to a doctor will demonstrate a marked increase in their ability to pay attention; however, if they believe the coat belongs to painter, there is no noted increase.

According to the professor at Northwestern who led the study:

It is not enough to see a doctor’s coat hanging in your doorway. The effect occurs only if you actually wear the coat and know its symbolic meaning — that physicians tend to be careful, rigorous and good at paying attention.

The article goes on to describe a growing field called "embodied cognition," of which this study is a part, that believes we think not only with our minds but also our bodies — where "our thought processes are based on physical experiences that set off associated abstract concepts." My thoughts immediately jumped to interior environments, of course, and made me wonder if there is possibly a correlation to be made with sustainability.

If we wear what we think is a doctor's coat and it makes us pay better attention, what if we move into an house which has been built to sustainable standards? When we "wear" sustainable interiors, is there a similar process at work? It made me think immediately of my research proposal, trying to determine if people's knowledge of the sustainability of a space affects their health and wellbeing. This is definitely something I'm going to have to investigate further...