How The Car You Drive Impacts Image Vehicles Reflect A Man’s Style Personality Perception
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Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno.
I'm the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, gentlemen, I'm going to be answering the question, "Does the vehicle we drive have
an effect on how other people perceive us?"
Basically, do we become what we drive?
Does the vehicle that we own, does it send a signal that other people pick up on and
therefore, they form an opinion of us?
Now, I'm going to base this off of a couple of studies that I read, in addition, my own
personal experience, but I would love to hear from your gentlemen down in the comments based
off of your experience, what you've read, what you know about, what you've experienced,
so I look forward to those comments.
But before we get into this, please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
That way, these videos come right to you.
In addition, if you like this, if you find it useful, I'd appreciate the like.
Okay, so this is the question that came in.
"Antonio, I'm a successful young man and I work in a pharmacy.
I have a strong understanding of dressing sharp, but the vehicle I drive is not pleasing
to look at.
Basically, it's an old, three-quarter ton Diesel pick-up truck.
It's loud, it smells, and whenever I drive through town, I get kind of the evil eye from
people.
I'm wondering, is this holding me back at work?
Staff members or people that are my boss or higher up in the company to me, are they going
to think negatively of me based off of the vehicle I drive?"
It's a good question and something that for his particular situation, to be honest, I
don’t know if this vehicle is going to hold him back.
One of the big questions we're going to ask is "Does it matter to everyone?" because it
doesn’t.
However, there is a linked effect on the vehicle that we drive and how it affects other people's
perceptions of us.
One of the first studies was what I saw over in Britain.
This one, they surveyed almost 2000 people and they found that 57% of people actually
-- and this is based on attractiveness.
They said that they would rate a person as more attractive or less attractive based off
of the vehicle that they drove.
They tested a couple of other things.
Twenty-one percent said they would rate a person as attractive or less attractive based
off of their job, 19% based off of confidence, 17% based off of their intelligence, so 57%
is pretty significant.
So the vehicle that we drive, according to that study -- in addition, there was a 2011
study over at Temple University and they actually ran a number of people through the ringer
and they discovered that we do have an effect or the vehicle we drive also has an effect
on us and how we behave.
They concluded from that that yes, some of the assumptions we make about people and the
vehicles they drive actually is true, or in a sense, it statistically does have an effect.
An example, you're meeting me for the first time.
Say you're in town, you're in Wisconsin.
You decide to meet Antonio up at the subway next to his office.
I pull up on a motorcycle, a Harley Davidson motorcycle versus what if I pulled up in a
minivan or if I pull up in an old, beat up Chevy pickup truck with a big Texas grill.
Now, I have owned all of those vehicles, two of them I still own, by the way, but your
perception of me -- I know many of you guys have probably watched me in my videos, so
perhaps it's going to be a bit skewed, but if you were meeting me for the first time,
if you see me pull up in a minivan, what do you assume about me?
That I'm probably going to drive the speed limit, that I have kids, that I'm married.
There are just things you're going to want to assume there.
If I show up on a motorcycle -- but I don’t have a Harley Davidson -- I had a Sprint ST
motorcycle.
I don’t have that vehicle anymore, but I have had a few cruisers and things like that.
When I was riding motorcycles, I can tell you that my perception of myself and who I
was, was a bit different than it is now.
Nowadays, I don’t really ride bikes anymore.
I've got kids and I want to live to see them grow older, although I told my wife I'm going
to get a bike as soon as my kids are out of the house.
But the point is oftentimes, the vehicle that we have does have an effect on us.
Now, a Chevy pickup truck, it's very practical.
It makes sense.
The grill, actually I did get that in Texas when I was stationed in Corpus Christi and
it's been very useful up here.
I hit a deer a couple of years back.
The thing just flew over to the side, no damage to my truck.
Now, all of that had, people form opinions when you see them based off of when they get
out of that vehicle, whether it'd be a work vehicle, whether it'd just be a simple vehicle.
Let's get down to the main point.
Does it matter to this gentleman?
He's a pharmacist.
He works in a decent size town and he's wondering is this going to have a negative effect on
his career.
My thing is okay, who is seeing you get in and out of this vehicle?
If it's a small company and if the people really know you well, then I would say it's
not going to have much of an effect.
They're going to judge you more based off your intelligence, your performance, and your
ability to get the job done.
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However, if this is a larger company and perhaps someone higher up or the person making the
managerial decisions of where you're going to be placed in the company doesn’t deal
with you on a day to day basis or you may barely know, if they just know you as the
guy that drives that Diesel truck that smells and let's say that they're environmentalists
and they've got a green thumb and they drive a Prius, they may look at you as, "You know,
this guy, I just feel that he just doesn’t have the same values as me.
I don’t want to see him move up in the company."
In that case, it could have a negative effect.
Now, there are certain industries in which I would say the vehicle you drive is going
to be actually pretty darn important.
If you're in real estate, you're driving somebody around town, you can bet the vehicle you drive,
if it smells, if it's not clean, if it's very impractical, if it's got some bright colors
on it and they're almost embarrassed to be inside of it, then yes, that's going to affect
whether or not you're going to close a sale, whether or not you're going to get the deal.
If you're in sales and you're showing up to a client's office and he looks out and you're
driving a $100,000 car and if you're just trying to lowball him on price, he's going
to wonder, "Well, what is this guy trying to do?
I can tell that he's got money."
Understand that the vehicle you drive does send a message.
Now, let's talk about if it does matter to you, what are the three things that you can
do to in a sense mitigate it or to control it?
Well, the first thing we talked about is understanding it, but really maybe keeping the vehicle simple.
And so, if you're going to keep the vehicle simple, what do I mean by that?
I mean non-offensive, so you don’t want to go with maybe a lime green color.
I just saw -- was it a Camaro that's for sale the other day, a big lime green.
Sports car, lime green, I think that whoever picks out that vehicle is definitely -- I'm
going to form an opinion of that person.
If you're in sales, if you are in real estate, you're probably not going to want to go with
that vehicle.
In addition, think about something that is -- the Prius, a number of years ago when it
first came out, a lot of people had an opinion of people that drove a Prius, the same thing
is you're driving a dually pickup truck.
Make sure that you've got a reason for driving that and it has to make sense.
First off, keep it simple.
Second, keep it clean.
I was in a Mercedes the other day.
It was 20 years old, a perfectly fine vehicle, and it was kept immaculately clean.
I had no negative perception.
In fact, I just thought that the person appreciated older vehicles and that they obviously took
very care of what they had, so no negative impression was formed.
I've made a couple of assumptions about the person, but by keeping your vehicle clean,
that's something that you can control because I know not everyone out there can go out there
and buy a new vehicle.
Well, if you've got an older vehicle, keep it clean.
Also pay attention to all the details.
If you've got a taillight that's out, don’t put tape -- I mean temporarily, yes, you may
have to put tape on it if it gets dinged up, but get that thing replaced as soon as possible.
A taillight that's barely holding on is not going to send the best first impression.
Finally, point number there, keep it practical.
I talked about a dually pickup truck.
If you grew up in West Texas and you're moving around trailers and you work on a farm or
a ranch, sure, a dually makes sense; however, if you live in a city and a dually is your
truck moving in and around, it's very difficult to park that thing.
It's impractical and you have to wonder why you're keeping this vehicle around.
Now, I know some of you guys -- again, I'm not telling anyone to go out there and buy
a new vehicle, but I am saying understand that a message is being sent.
That's it.
And for me, maybe you guys are wondering, yes, I do own a minivan and I still own my
almost 20-year-old Chevy pickup truck with a big Texas grill on the front, and those
probably send a message.
However, I'm in the comfortable position that most people don’t ever see me, don’t ever
meet me in person, and I'm not driving my vehicles out to conferences.
I actually find that my vehicles are very practical for what I do, so that's why I have
them.
Take care, guys.
I'll see you in the next video and I look forward to your opinions down in the comments.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
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