Men wearing large-logo shirts seen as less involved in relationships, study finds

What is the connection between a shirt logo and relationship commitment? Well, if a latest study is to be believed, the size of a logo on a man’s shirt reveals a lot about how he perceives romantic relationships in general.

The study, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, attempted to understand if there is any correlation between lavish displays of wealth — like expensive clothes from luxury fashion brands — and attractiveness between the sexes.

According to a report in The Guardian, it was found that men who wear tops with “large logos” on them are seen as “less interested” in committed relationships, and are more of “cads than dads”.

For the study, hundreds of University of Michigan students were shown two Ralph Lauren shirts. One of them had a large logo and the other contained a much smaller one. The students were asked a range of questions about what they thought about the person who would wear the shirts. They ranked their answers on a scale of 0 to 100.

Per the report, the study participants were of the opinion that men who owned and wore the large-logo shirt would be “more interested in brief sexual affairs and less interested in long-term, committed romantic relationships”, as compared with the men who owned the small-logo shirts, the study’s author, evolutionary psychologist Daniel Kruger, explained.

“Someone could interpret ‘brief sexual affair’ as cheating on one’s partner. We did not specify this, but it is consistent with the general pattern of results,” Kruger was quoted as telling The Guardian. He added the students rated men wearing the larger-logo shirts higher on characteristics like ‘flirts often’, ‘knowingly flirts with someone else’s partner’ and ‘would date more than one person at a time’.

It was also found in the study that participants believed men who wore a shirt with the smaller logo, were more likely to want “deeper intimacy”.

“Luxury brands have long been associated with status, though men may display luxury brands for different purposes. Subtle displays may be related to more traditional social status and class, whereas showy displays may be flaunting cash that does not last. It is one way of distinguishing dads from cads,” Kruger explained.