“ I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a mans shoes?” – Red, The Shawshank Redemption

Apparently we all should look at another’s shoes more often, this according to psychologists who conclude you can accurately judge a person just by looking at their shoes.

The study, published in the August 2012 edition of the Journal of Research in Personality, consisted of 63 students who looked at photographs showing 208 different pairs of shoes that belonged to volunteers in the experiment.

Researchers asked each of the volunteers to fill out a personality questionnaire and to provide their most frequently worn shoes for the experiment.

Lead researcher Omri Gillath found that by examining the style, cost, color of condition of the shoe, participants were able to guess about 90 percent of the of the owner’s personal characteristics.

Participants were able to guess characteristics of the volunteers in almost all categories, and concluded that people do wear shoes that reveal their personality, whether they intend to or not.

Expensive shoes belonged to high earners, flashy and colorful footwear belonged to extroverts and shoes that were not new but appeared to be spotless belonged to conscientious types.

While some of the clues like the ones already described were obvious, other clues were more surprising.

Practical and functional shoes generally belong to agreeable people, ankle boots fit with more aggressive personalities and uncomfortable looking shoes were worn by calm personalities.

However, psychologists noted that rarely some people will purposely choose shoes just to convey a certain public image that is different from their real personality.

Do you think shoes are an accurate predictor of one’s personality?

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Jeff Cormier

Dad, husband, dog lover, law, write at DigitalDeconstruction.com and other online destinations, forever immature. It's the me that I let you know.

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