Effective self-presentation requires matching appearance to location-specific social codes
Evidence
To be able to use the store clerk successfully, however, the individual also requires an understanding of locational meanings. That is, he or she must know which store is likely to be of the most service vis-a-vis the desired identity. To come on as a weekend swinger, it’s no good shopping at a store which specializes in suits for matrons. Nor is the Macy’s clerk likely to be able to assist one in creating the studied casualness of the upper class. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 620
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Connects to Erving Goffman’s presentation-of-self and to Simmel’s urban typification logic — the observer’s self-fashioning depends on reading encoded spaces.
Related
- Consumers need locational meaning codes to buy the right identity symbols (similarity 0.86)
- Appearance signals identity only when paired with location (similarity 0.80)
- Appearance and location clues sometimes give way to behavioral coding. (similarity 0.80)
- Freedom of symbolic choice makes self-presentation in modern cities perpetually error-prone (similarity 0.79)