Clothing cue. 1. A highly expressive consumer product worn as a covering for the head. 2. Distinctively styled head garb with varied markings, colors, shapes, and fit, designed to communicate a wearer's identity, gender, occupation, mood, and favorite sport.
Usage: Because of their prominence and proximity to the face, hats make impressive statements about our social status, affiliation, and personality (see HAIR CUE). Indeed, whatever we place atop our 15-pound heads--which loom conspicuously above our upright bodies for all to see--will be interpreted as a nonverbal sign.
A personal reflection. I've long been fascinated by the sheer emotional power of head coverings and hats. You may be interested in ideas about the Muslim hijab shared by my former Gonzaga University student, Kiran Malik-Khan, of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada: YouTube Video: Malik-Khan's Ted Talk.
Observation. In hat stores, shoppers may unwittingly reflect the power of head wear. After an uneasy smile, e.g., hats which fit the head but not the persona are hastily removed. A proper hat, on the other hand, stays put and rides out of the store atop the owner's head. Self-conscious thoughts that "everyone is noticing" soon fade (i.e., become old hat) as the wearer assimilates his or her "new personality."
Anthropology. According to University of Illinois archaeologist, Olga Soffer, the earliest-known headwear may be represented by a woven cap worn by an Upper Paleolithic figurine (the Venus of Willendorf) from Austria (Wong 2000). Venus figurines date back to ca. 27,000 years ago. (N.B.: Others have interpreted the impressions on Venus's head as coifed hair.)
Cap I. For men, wearing a baseball cap says: "I belong to a team." Although caps display the emblems of professional ball clubs, in a deeper sense the group they most accurately refer to is the generic association of men. Unlike women's hats which are designed to show individuality, men's hats are part of a uniform to show membership on a team (thus explaining the standardized design of turbans, fedoras, fezzes, and military caps).
Cap II. Wearing a baseball cap (the biggest selling U.S. hat) helps a man feel "stronger." On the isopraxic principle of "same behavior" (see REPTILIAN BRAIN), cap wearers draw strength a. from nonverbal bonds to fellow cap-wearers, and b. from the psychic power of male bonding in team sports. There is no better sign for judging a man's unspoken allegiances with other men than through the messaging features of his cap.
Cap III. The startling coloration of some sports caps not only makes them more noticeable than our hair alone, but carries a hidden warning message as well. Conspicuous blotches and bright flashes of color resemble the markings of dangerous animals, e.g., of bees, hornets, and poisonous snakes. Bold stripes and jolting patterns of black, white, yellow, red, and orange (which in the animal kingdom are aposematic warning messages aimed at predators) are as common in sports caps as in, e.g., skunks, tigers, and poison-arrow frogs. The markings seem to say, "Don't tread on me; I am toxic, noxious, and bad."
Brim. A hat brim suggests masculine "fierceness" by visually
enlarging a man's bony brow ridges (which are natural signs of strength
in the male skull, though less prominent now than in Neanderthal times). Drawn
down on the forehead, brims mimic eyebrows lowered in anger (as caricatured,
e.g., by the cartoon character, "Yosemite Sam"; see FROWN). With its turned-down brim, the fedora worn by
Humphrey Bogart made him look "meaner," while its vertically ascending crown
increased his standing height. (N.B.: Because a
baseball cap lacks the fedora's vertical stature, some men reshape the rounded
crown to produce a jaunty vertical riser in front; see HIGH-STAND
DISPLAY. Young American men are self-conscious about the appearance
of their cap's brim shape, and strive for an insouciant curvilinear, rather than
a senior's flattened [i.e., unmodified], "stock" appearance.) In the 1990s, traditional curved-brim caps were joined by flat-brim caps caps with mushroom-shaped crowns. The latter hats have become popular as hip-hop, rap, or counter-culture style statements for rebellious young men, marking their separation from older folk.
Media. Hats have become a form of mass media. "'In the
last seven years or so, licensed [sports] products as a whole started taking off
and baseball caps became a fashion statement,' explains Ron Meshil, chief
operating officer of Manny's Baseball Land, a sports merchandise store in Palm
City, Fla" (Oldenburg 1995:D5).
Style. A woman's hat, which
shows style, individuality, and presence, can also suggest power and strength.
Cowboy hats and fedoras, among the best selling headware for women in the U.S.,
reflect allegiance to predominantly male "teams." Alternatively, Floppy berets
and Garbo slouch hats frame the face like soft-falling tresses of hair, to seem
more appealing, approachable, and feminine. (N.B.: Few
men wear feminine hats. A woman has more freedom about her head's say-so in
Nonverbal World.)
Neuro-notes. We respond to hat cues, as we respond to natural cues
of the face, a. via paleocircuits linked to the amygdala; and b. through modules of
the primate brain's inferior temporal lobe, which respond to specific
facial expressions. The amygdala mediates our response
to fearful facial cues. The scarier the face (or the hat)
the more activity registers in the left amygdala (Suplee 1996), which alerts the
hypothalamus to mobilize the body for danger.
(N.B.: The facial "fear response" also has been
observed in rhesus monkeys. Even when reared in isolation from birth, young
monkeys respond appropriately to threatening faces with a fear grin
[Sackett 1973].)
See also EYEBROW-LOWER, WWW.Lids.com.
TOP HAT
High-standing headgear. In the western world, an often formal, imposing, usually masculine item of headgear with a flat, circular top (or crown) and precipitous, vertical sidewalls that descend to a narrow, horizontal brim. Top hats may be made of leather, silk or wool, and are normally black (see COLORS DECODED, Black).
Usage. Today top hats may be worn on solemn occasions (e.g., funerals and inaugurations), ceremonial gatherings (weddings) and yearly on February 2 (Groundhog Day). Yesterday's top hats were originally worn by upper- and middle-class members to connote superiority over lower-class folk (giving rise to the English phrase, "high hat"). At the beginning of the 20th Century, top hats were worn by men from all social classes, and became signature features in the uniforms of chimneysweeps.
Evolution. Top hats originated from earlier capotain designs, and swiftly replaced the trisome headgear worn by men of the 1700s, often including pirates. The first silk top hat appeared in England in 1793.
Looming effect. By exaggerating a man's standing height, top hats conferred a nonverbal power advantage in social status (see HIGH-STAND DISPLAY, LOOM).
U.S. presidential politics. The last American president to wear an inaugural top hat was John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), on January 20, 1961.
Look alikes. The sudden, widespread adoption of top hats is a prime example of the nonverbal principle of imitation (see ISOPRAXISM).
See also HAT.
YouTube Video: His hair is his hat.
Copyright 1998 -
2020 (David B. Givens/Center for Nonverbal Studies)
Photo of men in turbans; note the regional stylistic flair of a dorsal "twist" (a classic case of isopraxism [see ISOPRAXISM elsewhere in The Nonverbal Dictionary]; picture credit: unknown)