Mendoza School of Business

Do nice guys finish last on payday?

Published: August 19, 2011 / Author: Mendoza College



The following is an excerpt from an article in The Week that discusses Management Professor Tim Judge’s research on how agreeable workers earn significantly lower incomes than less agreeable ones. To read the entire article visit: Do nice guys finish last on payday?
Men and women who are cooperative get smaller paychecks than their more assertive cubicle mates. Does it pay to be pushy?

A recent report has confirmed what many of us suspected all along — it just doesn’t pay to be nice, particularly at work. In a study to be published in The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that people who are aggressive, outspoken, and willing to be disagreeable make significantly more money than their nicer coworkers. Do companies unwittingly reward bad behavior, or are nice people simply unwilling to negotiate better salaries? Here, a brief guide:

What did the researchers survey?
They analyzed almost 20 years of data from three different surveys, which sampled about 10,000 workers in a wide range of professions, salaries, and ages. The surveys looked at factors like agreeableness, cooperation, kindness, and other psychological factors.

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Topics: Mendoza