Fashion is starting to make its mark in Alaska. Anchorage, for example, has been called the worst dressed city in America, but also one of the hippest. With all this fashion hype, it's become critical to examine those Xtra Tuffs in the closet. What does your choice in footwear really say about you?
Radio Canada Reports on the Journal of Research in Personality's latest study which suggest that 90 percent of an individual's character can be determined just by looking at their shoes.
The research, carried out by the University of Kansas in collaboration with Wellesley College, Massachusetts, enlisted the help of 208 student volunteers to fill out a psychological questionnaire and submit a picture of themselves from the knee down. From there, a separate group of students looked at the photos to identify what kind of person the footwear belonged to.
It turns out that there are some pretty basic things you can learn right away by looking at someone's shoes. Among the easiest to guess are gender, approximate age and economic standing. The harder: specific character traits, values and emotional stability. Yet the observing student volunteers were able to identify 90 percent of psychological test information provided by the photo subjects.
So what does this all mean? Well, for Alaskans, if you're wearing boots, the study suggests you probably have an aggressive temperament, but if your shoes are "neutral," you're likely an introvert. People who rock cheap and/or worn-out kicks are likely to be more open-minded than most.
For a full list on the personality of shoes visit Medical Daily or Radio Canada.