Do you like my hat?

I bought a hat the other day. I found a nice display of them while browsing some after-Christmas sales. When I tried on the ones I liked, I was surprised to find one that both looked good and fit me. My head's pretty big and my hairstyle isn't one that often works well with hats, so that was a rarity. In fact, I haven't regularly worn a hat since a misguided interest in baseball caps when I was a kid.

Wearing it has been interesting. I'm not used to wearing a hat, and this one changes my silhouette strikingly. People look at me more. I also expect people to look at me more, causing me to look at people more. I try to be armed with a smile for when people look. Some combination of the more frequent, positive casual interactions and the smiling is making me happier. It's also causing me to make eye contact more often, an area I wanted to improve on. The best part is, the side effects were purely serendipitous; I wasn't expecting anything like this to happen.

And now that the idea's been planted in your head, you don't even need to randomly stumble upon a secret to more social confidence. When you want to try it out, start regularly wearing something that makes you stand out in a small, pleasant way, and go with it.