Bastards get the bucks

The law of karma is the law of cause and effect: actions and thoughts have consequences. This is true even though from the outside the connections between events may not seem “fair”. The apparent unfairness of life has been illustrated in a new study showing who gets paid the most in the workplace.

The researchers of the study set out to see whether being agreeable or disagreeable in the workplace had any impact on how much you are paid.

By “agreeable” the researchers meant a tendency towards warmth, kindness, and cooperation. In psychological terms agreeableness is one of the personality traits that has been shown to have strong genetic links. You would think that agreeable people would be highly valuable in the workplace but does their pay reflect that?

To test this the researchers used data on 3500 people from recent school leavers to people in their 70s. After controlling for factors like education and job complexity the researchers found that people who scored high in disagreeableness earned significantly more than people are agreeable.

Men who were disagreeable earned on average eighteen per cent more than agreeable men. That translated to an average of US$9772 more per year. Disagreeable women earned an average of six per cent more than agreeable women translating to US$1828 annually.

To find out why disagreeableness favoured men more than women, the researchers had 460 people read profiles of eight female and eight male job promotion candidates. Half of all the candidates were “agreeable” and the other half “disagreeable”. The evaluators saw the disagreeable men as strong leaders but did not see this advantage in disagreeable women. The researchers say that tough or disagreeable women have a social scorn directed at them that negates the benefits of their toughness.

Overall though, disagreeable people still attract bigger pay packets.

The “bastards” of this world then may receive monetary reward but that should not be construed as meaning that the world is unfair. Even if it is not clear to you, the universe is unfolding just as it should. The price the disagreeable person pays may not be monetary and the reward for kindness and compassion may be far more permanent and substantial than cash.

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