ArticlePloS one2026
When stripes in clothes deceive: Cross-cultural examination of perceptual and belief discrepancies about horizontal stripes in clothes.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite the common belief that horizontal stripes in clothes make someone look wider, behavioral studies show that horizontally striped stimuli are perceived as thinner compared to equally wide non-striped stimuli. In the present study, we examined the extent to which participants' beliefs regarding the thinning or widening effect of horizontal stripes were related to their visual perception of horizontally striped versus neutral stimuli in a behavioral task. Data were collected across three countries to explore possible cross-cultural generalizability of the phenomenon. In Experiment 1 (n = 316; Greece, Netherlands), we measured participants' beliefs regarding the effect of horizontal stripes in clothes, verifying the popular belief that horizontal stripes are, indeed, thought to have a widening effect regardless of country. In Experiment 2 (n = 419; Greece, Netherlands, Taiwan), participants self-reported their beliefs regarding the effect of horizontal stripes and, also, completed a behavioral task comparing the width of a striped and non-striped dress. The results showed that (a) in line with previous research, the horizontally striped dress was perceived as thinner compared to the non-striped dress, and (b) the more participants believed that horizontal stripes make someone look thin, the more they perceived the striped dress as thinner. However, the relation between beliefs and size perception was non-significant for participants who believed that horizontal stripes make someone look wider. No cross-cultural differences were found for this asymmetrical effect, highlighting the universality of the findings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.