Men in the mirror: Trump and Xi’s suits put ‘chameleon effect’ to test in Beijing

When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits.Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties.They were surrounded by scores of other men in different suits: Stephen Miller had his customary pocket square, ditto Pete Hegseth, who along with Scott Bessent wore flamboyantly stripy ties; Elon Musk wore a green tie; there were blue shirts and black suits. Making their symmetry more visually striking.(Front L-R) White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, trade representative Jamieson Greer, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, secretary of state Marco Rubio and ambassador to China David Perdue. Elon Musk and Apple’s Tim Cook are in the row behind. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesBoth leaders were hoping to secure geopolitical gains and trade deals – and matching suits, according to Enda Young, the founder and CEO of the Centre for Negotiation and Leadership and a negotiation lecturer at Oxford University, may have helped. “There’s good evidence from social psychology that people tend to warm more quickly to those who seem similar to them,” he says. “That can be behaviour, language, posture or even appearance and dress.”In negotiation, he says, “mirroring often works at a subconscious level. Similar suits, colours or body language can signal alignment, shared status or mutual respect before anyone speaks.”Young points to research on the “chameleon effect”, which “also shows that subtle mimicry tends to increase rapport and cooperation”, also citing the work of Robert Cialdini, the author of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, and “his principle of ‘liking’ where similarity tends to increase trust and openness to influence”.It’s not the first time political leaders have mirrored each other in high-stakes moments. When France’s Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent three days in 2024 in the Amazon rainforest talking about ecological preservation and a global minimum tax rate for the world’s wealthiest, their “bromance” was viewed through the lens of their matching outfits (and hand-holding).Lula and Macron in Brazil in 2024. Photograph: Ricardo Stuckert/Brazilian Presidency/AFP/Getty ImagesThe opposite was perhaps in evidence when Volodymyr Zelenskyy was admonished for wearing a military-style black sweatshirt rather than a suit to the Oval Office for what became a disastrous exchange between the two leaders last year. When Zelenskyy returned months later, he was seen to be making a diplomatic concession when he wore a military-style “suit”.Zelenskyy and Trump during the ill-fated Oval Office meeting. Photograph: Mystyslav Chernov/APTwinning can go wrong in other ways, such as when Liz Truss delivered her first speech as prime minister at the Conservative party conference wearing a dress that appeared identical to that of a fictional dictator.Truss at the 2022 Conservative party conference in Birmingham. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesFor mirroring, “the important caveat is that it only really works when it feels natural. If it looks staged or too deliberate, people tend to react against it,” says Young.Important, then, that the look was not a departure for either president. While Trump’s look rarely strays from the one he wore for this occasion, Xi’s wardrobe has more diversity, including a low-key windbreaker, as well as the more traditional Mao suit, which Xi wore last year during a military parade in Beijing in the company of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.After initial talks, perhaps the wardrobe mirroring was working, as Xi said: “Our two countries should be partners rather than rivals.” By day two, with no clear resolutions yet announced, the men were, according to Trump, “true friends”, but they were no longer mirroring; Xi remained dressed and styled the same, but Trump’s jacket lay open, a striped blue tie dangling underneath.