The Birth of a Myth: Niceness Does Not Pay?

I caused a change on a major news site this week. Too bad the change only made the post slightly more accurate. The story about this news story illustrates one way business myths are born.

Browsing MSNBC.com on Tuesday, my eyes stopped at the headline, "Life isn't fair: Play nice, get paid less." The short piece opened with, "Here's another reason to hate the stereotypical 'jerk at work': He or she may also be earning more money than those of you who choose to be nice." It went on to say a study reported in the Wall Street Journal had found "people who are less agreeable tend to earn more." There was a gender difference, too, in that "being less agreeable paid off more for men, who earned about 18 percent more… Women who were rude saw a smaller salary bump of around 5 percent."

I downloaded a draft of the study article that will be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The basic facts in the news story are correct. The terms "jerk" and "rude" are wildly misleading.

The research team led by management professor Timothy Judge of the Univ. of Notre Dame actually conducted four studies. Three analyzed data from research projects that have been following large groups of people over a number of years. The project data included questions on "agreeableness," which is one of the five factors of personality, as well as income and other personality and work-related measures. The project used in the first study, for example, is interviewing 9,000 people who were aged 12–16 when it started in 1997. Among that group, in 2008 people who reported being more agreeable earned less than those who did not, with the effect stronger for men than for women.

I can't resist noting that "women earned, on average, $4,787 less than men, even controlling for education, marital status, hours worked per week, and work force continuity." Men who claim the persistent wage gap between men and women is because women take time out to raise babies are undermined by those last two items.

The second study used the National Survey of Midlife Development out of Harvard, which included a follow-up ten years later. It came up with basically the same results regarding agreeableness, gender, and income. Same for the third, using The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, which is following people who graduated high school in that state in 1957.

To get a better sense of how this income disparity developed, the scientists came back to the lab. They devised a study in which college students were asked to play the role of human resource managers deciding which employees "should be placed on a fast-track to management." Each fake candidate "was described, in some way, as conscientious, smart and insightful." But their apparent agreeableness was manipulated using various words (see below). Sure enough, candidates who seemed less agreeable were more likely to be fast-tracked, and being less agreeable helped men more than women.

Now peruse the terms used to ask people how agreeable they thought they were or describe the fast-track candidates:

• Study 1—"Agreeable" versus "quarrelsome," cooperative/difficult, flexible/stubborn.
• Study 2—Helpful, friendly, warm, caring, softhearted, outspoken, and sympathetic.
• Study 3—"(1) has a forgiving nature; (2) tends to find fault with others; (3) is sometimes rude to others; (4) is generally trusting; (5) can be cold and aloof; (6) is considerate to almost everyone; and (7) likes to cooperate with others."
• Study 4—"trust, straightforwardness, modesty and compliance."

Out of 21 phrases, only one used "rude," and none used a definite opposite such as "polite."

One can be disagreeable without being a rude jerk. I will dig in my heels when people challenge me in an area I've researched heavily, until they provide verifiable facts from objective sources. But I remain polite. I don't yell. I don't question their intelligence or motives or the legitimacy of their births.

Judge and the other authors of the study, Beth Livingston of Cornell Univ. and Charlice Hurst of the Univ. of Western Ontario, state that rudeness is "the least likely" explanation for their findings. They suggest that assertiveness and a willingness to take a strong stand in pay negotiations—the willingness to literally disagree—are probably more the point. "Also, as suggested in Study 3, disagreeable people may value money more highly and, thus, make higher investments in their extrinsic success," they write. "For instance, a disagreeable individual might choose to move for a promising promotion that will put him at a distance from extended family while an agreeable man might choose to stay put, concerned with balancing the desire for career advancement with the motivation to maintain strong familial ties." In Study 3, agreeable people reported higher life satisfaction, lower stress, and greater involvement with their community and friends.

The most practical takeaway from these studies may be the fact that agreeableness has such a smaller impact for women. The authors suggest this is because women are expected to be nice. Being disagreeable goes against that stereotype, turning off more people in women than it does in men. "Nice girls might not get rich, but 'mean' girls do not do much better," the study says. (Don't be offended by the use of "girls"; they are playing off the title of their study, "Do Nice Guys—and Gals—Really Finish Last?")

I tweeted the reporter of the news article to suggest a correction. "Good point. I tweaked the post," she replied.

The change was to say, "Women who were rude or in other ways disagreeable…" I thanked her by tweet for her integrity. However, I have to say that while the change is technically more accurate, the story still badly misses the gist of the findings. Those who read it will come away believing something the study did not say—a myth. There are exceptions to everything, but if you think you are going to "rude" your way to the upper class, you are probably in for a rude awakening.

Sources:

• Linn, A. (2011), "Life isn't fair: Play nice, get paid less," Today.com, 8/17/11.
• Judge, T., B. Livingston, and C. Hurst (in press), "Do Nice Guys—and Gals—Really Finish Last? The Joint Effects of Sex and Agreeableness on Income," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.