Appearance and character judgment: Testing physiognomy theory through street observation

Physiognomy

What I did

I usually wear clean Nike sneakers (I have a white and a black pair) or cowboys boots (shined), well-pressed jeans and either a pullover shirt (a polo, or turtleneck under a sweater if it is cold out) or a long-sleeve dress shirt. For this project I let my beard grow for several days, I didn't brush my hair (so some was sticking up and looking wild rather than smooth), I wore a dirty old sweatshirt with holes (it was a sweatshirt / hoody with a faded Jack Daniels logo on the front) and with large stains and my pants were actually old pajama bottoms, tattered, that I had found in a box someone dropped off at a Goodwill store.

Rather than shoes, I wore a slipper on one foot and a paint-spattered flip-flop on the other foot, clearly seeming to be both homeless and confused, as though I needed psychological help as well as financial help. I had a sign made ("help a veteran") and for an hour or so I sat by an on-ramp to a busy freeway. For the second hour, I walked the streets in a fairly upscale part of downtown; sometimes I peered into store windows, got in line at a coffee (Starbucks) place (asking for change so I could get a cup of coffee), and stood on street corners with a sad face.

What I saw and felt

The first thing I noticed was that people on the street did not want to make eye contact with me. The well-dressed woman on her way to work (I went out between 8:00 A.M. And roughly 10:20 A.M.) quickly looked the other way when she caught me looking at her. While positioned near the freeway younger men passing shouted "get a job" or just gave me "the finger"; but an older woman pulled up next to me and handed me a dollar bill. Basically I was invisible to most people passing by me. A well-dressed businessman looked at me with a mean expression (I was temporarily in his way), and in line at Starbucks people turned away from me and some rolled their eyes (no one offered me money to buy coffee). Dogs on leashes barked at me (one German shepherd bared his teeth), children looked at me pitifully, and a policeman asked me for identification. I told him I was a student on an experiment, and he said I should go home and take a shower.

People definitely believed I was homeless and therefore, according to the theory, they likely also judged that I was less than a wholesome, welcomed citizen. Stereotypes are very powerful, and when you dress like a homeless person on the street, you do automatically fall into that category. I was seen as pathetic, a scoundrel, a loser or even dangerous.