What your date’s halloween costume says about them
Some people may use Halloween as an opportunity to display their subconscious, hidden selves
Everyone knows someone who’s been planning their Halloween costume since March, and everyone also knows someone who will throw something lazy together last-minute. The timing of this decision says something about a person (are you a planner, or do you prefer to live by the seat of your pants?), as does the product of it — what you wear as a Halloween costume can speak to your sense of humor, your enthusiasm, your holiday spirit, your individuality, your politics, your desire to fit in (or not), and your craftiness.
If you think that’s an overstatement, consider this: only 3% of OkCupid users refuse to say whether or not they like dressing up for Halloween, meaning this is something almost everyone has an opinion about. Whether you dress up for it or not (and 61% of OkCupid users say they like to wear a costume on Halloween), you’re likely to notice other people’s costumes, and decide you know something more about them because of it — though you may not always be right.
John Suler, a professor of psychology at Rider University in New Jersey, once held an experiment in which he asked students to pick costumes out for their peers. He found that most of the students assigned costumes that portrayed a characteristic or personality oppositional to the people they were chosen for — i.e. something wild and outrageous for the quietest kid in class. Suler suggests that some people may use Halloween as an opportunity to display their subconscious, hidden selves — a slightly troubling hypothesis for the many Pennywise the Clowns you’re sure to see roaming around later this month.
Costumes which more cleverly reference pop culture might be more about wanting to connect and relate to other people, says Suler. For shy, creative types, dressing in something that begs the question “What are you supposed to be?” is an opportunity to start a conversation. If you see someone at a party wearing something you can’t figure out, chances are high that they want to be asked about it. Very likely their costume is something they put a lot of time and effort into, and no one wants to do all that only to have nobody understand (or care) what they are.
Then there are always the prepackaged costumes you pick up day-of — the bad politician masks, the generic police officer, the “sexy” versions of not-all-that-sexy jobs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, psychologists say these sexy costumes are indicative of a repressed sexuality. They (and other costume shop sets like them) are also indicative of a person who has approximately $80 to spend on a poorly made outfit they’ll wear once. For you, a date’s decision to wear an off-the-rack costume might seem like evidence they’re uninspired and unoriginal. For someone else, it might be evidence that they’re a good sport with a healthy checking account. To each their own.
But one other statistic to consider — people who dress up for Halloween are 19% more open to having sex in a costume. So maybe, for some, Halloween actually doesn’t have to be just one day a year.
Written by Katie Heaney.
Halloween costumes are even more fun with someone else; your couples costume counterpart is waiting on OkCupid right now.
