Using data collected over almost 20 years in three different surveys, with information from 10,000 workers from a wide range of professions, wages and ages, the researchers analyzed the level of friendliness of the employees. And so they found that men who scored below average in terms of "agreeableness" gained 18% or more than subjects who behaved nicer. The less cordial women, meanwhile, earned about 5% more than their affable colleagues. " Nice people are getting unfair treatment ," says study co-author Beth A. Livingston, a professor at Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "The problem is that many managers often don't realize they are rewarding unkindness," adds Livingston.
To corroborate this, they also conducted an additional study with 460 management students, who were asked to act as human resource managers for a fictitious company, and given brief descriptions of candidates for a consultant position. The results showed that men described as "very nice" were less likely to get the job.
