Just how much consideration do you give to the colour of your clothes?

For as long as we’ve worn cloth to cover our bodies, black clothes have been associated with dreary times and dark occasions.

That assumption may actually be wrong, though, as a recent study done on 1,000 people by shirt retailer Buy T-Shirts Online shows black clothes may actually inspire confidence within the wearers.

In a study on how different colours are perceived, 56% of people asked said they thought black was a “[colour] of confidence.”

This means wearing black on something like a first date or job interview may be the best option to increase your chances for success.

Throughout all our survey, black came first or second in most “good” traits (for example confidence, intelligence and sexiness) and barely figured in the “bad” traits (arrogance). It wasn’t a particularly good performer in the “generosity” scale, however, coming second to last after brown, but it’s hard to imagine is being any other way. Try getting your kid to sit on the knee of a black-clad Santa.

Benevolent nocturnal visitations aside, black is the colour to wear when you’re trying to impress, reassure or woo. There’s a certain trustworthiness about it on a person that would make you hand over your life savings and thank them for the privilege.

On the reverse side of all this, the study clearly showed you should never wear orange or brown to events where you need to be confident; only 4% of people thought it was fine to consider donning orange to a first date, and only 5% of people asked, overall, believed it was OK to wear brown.

Other findings in the study point to how red is considered the most arrogant colour, while pink is looked upon as the least intelligent one.

Before you go and chuck your whole wardrobe, let me just reemphasise this study was done by a t-shirt company with the least original name for a t-shirt company of all time.