Dopamine dressing: How the colour of your clothes could change your brain

Dopamine dressing may one of the hottest TikTok trends, but is there any science to it?

Dubbed ‘part fashion, part mindfulness’, dopamine dressing is the TikTok trend that encourages people to choose clothing that matches their desired mood. So, if we opt for colourful clothing over the drab and dreary, we’ll get a boost of dopamine and feel happier.

Dopamine, as a neurotransmitter, is involved in several brain functions including the forming of emotions. It’s not the only molecule that can affect how we feel – serotonin, oxytocin and various endorphins interact with dopamine to give rise to our mood. But dopamine does play a fundamental part in our brain’s reward system.

As to whether our outfit choice can offer a dopamine boost, to put it plainly, we don’t know – there is no study that has asked participants to change into brightly coloured clothes while monitoring the dopamine levels in their brain. But as far as the concept goes, there are studies that show a relationship between the clothes we wear and how we act and feel.

In one study, people photographed wearing a red or black T-shirt were viewed as being more attractive than those wearing any other colour.

Wearing red can also lead to better physical performance. A review of football matches over the last 55 years showed that teams with a red kit consistently played better in home games than any other kit colour.

One study showed that wearing an outfit that has an association with a profession, like a doctor’s white coat, improves cognitive processes.

Termed ‘enclothed cognition’, this might also be why wearing gym clothes makes us more likely to exercise. While formal suits make a person act with more dominance, when it comes to performance, comfort is arguably more important – students taking exams fared better when they were wearing comfier, less formal clothes.

Those who spend their days pursuing creative endeavours might want to try wearing green, as viewing the colour has been linked to better creative performance. The colour green has also been found to evoke feelings of relaxation, likely because it reminds us of nature. Yellow, and its suggestions of summer and warmth, can bring a viewer happiness, energy and excitement, though it’s not known if these feelings occur when wearing the colour.

There are some problems with studying associations between colour and emotions, namely that our opinions are closely linked with our culture.

In the UK, we may associate the colour black with sadness because it’s what we wear to a funeral, but mourners wear white at funerals in China. We also can’t say for certain that everyone sees colour the same, as anyone who saw ‘the dress’ on social media in 2015 can attest.

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