Why do we have the idiom ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’? Because we do judge a book by its outward appearance. And we judge men and women we meet by their coverings.

It gets worse. We even think that people who wear better coverings have better qualities. We assume them to be more professional, and we expect them to perform better, all else being equal.

Thanks to people in white coats, you can now practice the same trick on yourself. Researchers at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University have found that what you wear can change how you interact with your world and so influence how you perform.

Read that again. What you wear can effect, not only how others perceive you, but your own performance. That is, as long as the clothes you wear have symbolic meaning, such as better, richer, stronger, whatever. To you and to society.

But wait!

Because others will still judge you by your coverings, I suggest you be even smarter: wear something over that superhero outfit before you turn on your webcam.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.