Research shows you can detect certain traits by what shoes a person wears

If you're trying to get a read on someone's personality, just look down at their feet. According to researchers, the shoes you wear can say a lot about your personality.

The authors of the study say that you can accurately judge 90 percent of a stranger's personality just by their shoes, according to an article on Yahoo!. "Shoes serve a practical purpose, and also serve as nonverbal cues with symbolic messages," the authors said. "People tend to pay attention to the shoes they and others wear."

Some traits that researchers say you can detect through a person's shoes are general age, income, political affiliation and even someone's emotional stability.

Students at the University of Kansas were shown hundreds of different pairs of shoes worn by the study's participants and asked to describe what they thought their personality was like.

Some of the results weren't too surprising. People with higher incomes tended to wear more expensive shoes and flashier shoes were often worn by people with outgoing personalities.

The study also found descriptions that were not so obvious. "Practical and functional" shoes were worn by more "agreeable" people, and those who wore ankle boots were described as "aggressive." And if a participant had on shoes that looked "uncomfortable," they had personalities that were "calm."