研究表明:女性鞋跟越高 其所在城市可能越富有

Do you live in your high heels? Chances are you live in a wealthy city, new research suggests.

你每天都穿高跟鞋嗎？一項新研究表明：如果是，那麼你很有可能生活在一個富有的城市。

American women who relocate to wealthier cities are more likely to adopt the Fashion preferences of those around them (including higher stilettos), while those who move to poorer cities are more likely to eschew the local norm and stick with their previous wardrobe style, a new study from Tepper School of Business reveals.

泰珀商學院的一項最新研究表明，那些遷移到更富有的城市的美國女性更有可能受到周圍的人對時尚的偏好的影響（包括越來越高的細高跟鞋），而那些遷到相對來說貧窮的城市的女性，則更有可能避開當地的流行趨勢，堅守她們之前的裝扮風格。

Heel height increases in wealthier areas where the local style accepts the higher heel as standard, assert the school's associate professor of marketing Jeff Galak and his co-authors in the paper, titled "Trickle-down preferences: Preferential conformity to high status peers in fashion choices".

泰珀商學院的營銷學副教授傑夫·加拉克與其他人合著了一篇題爲《滴流趨勢：與富有羣體保持一致的潮流選擇》的論文。該論文闡述道，在那些更富有的地區，越來越高的鞋跟被視作是一種潮流標準，因而女性的鞋跟高度不斷增加。

"Studying heel height may seem like an unusual way to understand social influence, but it's actually a perfect setting," said Galak. "Fashion choices are highly visible decisions that are influenced by social norms and pressures."

"研究鞋跟的高度似乎是瞭解社會影響的一種不同尋常的方式，但實際上它是一種極佳的方法，"加拉克說。"從潮流的選擇中，我們很明顯就能看出社會規範和社會壓力對其產生的影響。"

The researchers studied 16,236 shoe purchases by 2,007 women across more than 180 US cities over a five-year period. They found that women's heel height changed along with their relocation, whenever they moved to a city whose median income was higher than earnings in their original hometown.

研究者們調查了來自美國180個城市的2007名女性在五年中購買的16236雙鞋子。他們發現，當這些女性搬到一個平均工資水平要高於原來城鎮的新城市時，她們鞋跟的高度也會隨之變化。

Census figures reveal that more than 7 million Americans relocate across state lines annually, and Galak admits that heel height could be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to conformity and shopping habits. "There is, of course, still more work to be done to understand how people, in general, balance the complexity of maintaining their own sense of individuality while trying to be part of a larger group," he says.

根據人口普查數據顯示，每年有700多萬美國人會遷到本國的另一個州。加拉克教授承認，談到潮流和購物習慣時，鞋跟高度只是冰山一角。他說："當人們在試圖追隨大衆潮流又要保持自己的個性時，要怎樣來平衡這一複雜性呢？要想從整體上了解這一問題，我們還有很多工作要做。"