Koa has a problem. Halloween is ten days away, her study group is planning a costume evening, and she has four outfits on the bed. So, like any good study koala, she asked a nerdy question first: can what you wear actually change how you study?
The famous lab coat study
In 2012, the researchers Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky published a study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and gave the idea a name: enclothed cognition. Their claim: clothes can change how you think, depending on what they mean to you and whether you actually wear them. In one experiment, people who wore a white coat described as a doctor's coat made fewer mistakes on an attention task than people who did not.
The honest part: it did not replicate
Science is a team sport, so other researchers tried it again. In 2019, Burns and colleagues ran a preregistered direct replication of the lab coat attention effect, published in the same journal, and found no effect of the coat. Later, in a meta-analysis of 40 studies (Horton, Adam and Galinsky, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, online 2023), the authors themselves wrote that the early studies raise replicability concerns, while studies published after 2015 do support the broader idea that clothing can influence how people think, feel and act.
Koa's summary: a costume will not make you smarter. But clothes can still be a useful signal to yourself.
Koa's four costumes, rated for studying
- Witch hat Koa: great for a "spell-checking" essay session. Hat goes on, phone goes in the drawer, one focus round starts. Hat off = break.
- Friendly ghost Koa: a white sheet is very cosy and very bad for typing. Best for reading on the sofa, not for maths.
- Bat Koa: the night-owl look. Fun for one evening, but Koa still goes to bed on time, because sleep is where the learning settles.
- Pink pumpkin Koa: round, soft and impossible to take seriously. Perfect for the costume party itself, after the studying is done.
Turn your outfit into a study ritual
You do not need a costume for this. Pick one thing that means "study mode now": a hoodie, a hair clip, cosy socks, even a hat. Put it on when you start, take it off when you stop. A small ritual like that makes the start easier, and starting is usually the hardest part. Koa pairs it with the free Pinkoa study timer: outfit on, one focus round, short break.
Need costume ideas that cost nothing? Koa collected some in cheap DIY Halloween costumes for students. And if you like the witch look all year, there is a witch hat Koa sweatshirt too.
Free pink Halloween printables
Until 31 October, Koa's pink Halloween printables are free: wall art with friendly ghosts and pumpkins, spooky bookmarks and wallpapers. Print one for your costume-night invitation.
Shade of the day: no. 24 Cameo Pink
Cameo Pink (#EFBBCC) is a soft, dusty pink like an old cameo brooch. It pairs well with mint, orange and cream, which makes it a surprisingly good Halloween pink next to a little pumpkin orange.
Pinkoa (Finnish): to run fast, and in student slang, to study hard. Koa does both, sometimes in a witch hat.
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Launch month: the code KOA20 still works until 25 October.
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