Imagine this: You’re interviewing two people for a job. They’re equally competent, capable, and qualified—but you can see that one is wearing an outfit from H&M and the other’s clothes are clearly from Louis Vuitton. Whichcandidate will you hire?

　　想象一下：你正在面试两位申请者，他们都很有竞争力，资历不相上下——但你明显可以看出一位穿着H&M的外套，另一位身穿路易斯·威登的名牌服装。你会聘用哪一位呢?

　　A new study in the Journal of Business Research suggests you’re more likely to choose the latter. Surveying students at a large urban university in Seoul, South Korea, researchers from Yonsei University and Coastal Carolina University examined how we react to others depending on the brands they’re wearing. To do so, they tested several scenarios of someone wearing a luxury brand logo, a logo from a non-luxury brand, or no logo. They found that in nearly every situation, people gave preferentialtreatment to the person wearing the luxury logo.

　　来自《商业研究杂志》的一项新研究表明你很有可能会选择后者。来自韩国延世大学和美国卡罗莱纳海岸大学的研究者通过对位于韩国首尔市区的大学生的调查，来测试人们对于身穿不同品牌的人有怎样的反应。采用这种方法，他们在不同场景下分别测试人们了对于身穿名牌的人，身穿普通品牌的人和身穿无品牌衣服的人的反应。他们发现几乎在每一种情况下，人们对身着名牌服饰的人会更加友好的对待。

　　The researchers call this effect an example of costly signaling theory, which says that people show off to “signal” to others that they can afford to do so. In the case of luxury brands, the theory predicts that people wear expensive clothing to flaunt that they can afford it, thereby increasing their status in the eyes of others.

　　研究者管这种效应叫做消费价值信号理论，意思是这些人在展示一种“信号”告诉其他人他们可以买得起名牌。这一理论指出，身着名牌的人通过自己身穿的衣服来夸耀自己买得起名牌，从而提高他们在别人眼中的地位。

　　But this doesn’t necessarily mean you should rush out and splurge on Gucci shoes before your next job interview. The researchers caution that several additional factors are at work.

　　但这并不是说你需要马上冲出去，在你下一个工作面试前血拼一双古奇的鞋子并穿上。研究者在工作中也注意到一些其他附加因素。

　　For one, the observer must recognize the brand logo without assistance. If the wearer has to point out what she’s wearing, the effect is destroyed. And, of course, the observer must know the brand to recognize it in the first place.

　　例如，观察者需要在没有任何帮助的情况下认出品牌标志。如果需要穿衣者自己说出她穿的是什么牌子的衣服，则完全达不到效果。同样，当然，观察者需要第一时间认出是什么牌子。

　　For another, how someone wears the brand matters. The researchers say that a gaudyoutfit will probably backfire with wealthy observers. Wealthy people tend to value subtlety in showing one’s social standing, viewing “loud” displays of clothing as being in bad taste. Cheaper designer items cater to the opposite impulse, often featuring large logos that allow their purchasers to conspicuously show off the brand.

　　另外，穿什么牌子到底有多重要。研究者称一件华而不实的名牌服装可能对于富人观察员并没有什么好的效果。富人更加倾向于巧妙的表现自己的社会地位，身穿名牌出来显摆被看成是品味很差。低廉设计的品牌则正好相反，他们经常在衣服上印上很大的标志，让他们的购买者肆无忌惮的展示他们的品牌。

　　The hiring process is known to be fraught with biases—now it seems we can add fashion to the list too.

　　聘用的过程被认为是充满偏见的——如今我们还可以加上时尚这一条了。

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（责任编辑：何莹莹）