PAGE 14
MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Elizabeth Gustin, Alyssa Lokits, Kristen Meier, Joy Stewart, and Caitlin Young show off their favorite shoes because of a study that was done by Psychology Professor Omri Gillath on how your personality traits relate to the shoes you wear.
JESSICA JANASZ/KANSAN
Shoes may indicate person's personality
KELSEA ECKENROTH keckenroth@kansan.com
You can't judge a book by its cover, but can you judge a person by the shoes on their feet? Apparently so.
A University research study found that the type of shoes a person wears can help judge a person's personality traits, status, and political views. A group of 63 students accurately judged the age, gender, income, and attachment anxiety of shoe owners based on pictures.
Omri Gillath, a psychology professor involved with the study, said the idea came from researching people's abilities to read others as a way to find people with similar traits and become friends with them.
One of the traits the study, published in the August 2012 edition of the "Journal of Research in Personality," found was that shoe color relates to attachment anxiety. Gillath said the more colorful the shoes are, the less anxious the person who wears them is.
The study also showed that high top shoes are associated with low agree- ableness.
Campus is filled with many different types of shoes worn by the variety of students.
Sadie Johnson, a recent graduate from Osage City, has a closet full of brown, black, and neutral colored shoes. Her collection consists of hightop Chuck Taylor's, cheap sandals, boots, and what she calls "random flats I got from my mom."
"Sometimes I feel like I am more crazy than what I wear, because I tend to wear a little bit more neutral things," she said, "but I am a little bit more loud and obnoxious sometimes."
Last week, Johnson went shopping for shoes to go with everything. She ended up buying two pairs of TOMS shoes, but was hesitant at first because she didn't want to "look like everyone else."
"I was thinking, 'Oh you know, everybody has Toms,'" she said. "They are very bland and boring. I didn't want
to wear something everyone else was wearing and look like I was trying to fit in, but I ended realizing I actually liked them."
Erin Gomer, a senior from Bonner Springs, said that the type of shoes she wears depends on where she is going and what she is doing during that day.
"I don't really like to wear socks. So, if I can wear shoes without socks, then that's good," she said. "I have a favorite pair of moccasins that I wear a lot that are leather and are really light, so it feels like I'm not wearing shoes."
-Edited by Maegan Mathiasmeier
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