"A newly published study featuring a mock jury not only supports that assertion: It takes it a step further, suggesting women's anger may actually be counterproductive. It finds that, while men who express anger are more likely to influence their peers, the opposite is true for women.
"Our results lend scientific support to a frequent claim voiced by women, sometimes dismissed as paranoia," conclude psychologists Jessica Salerno of Arizona State University and Liana Peter-Hagene of the University of Illinois–Chicago. They suggest the belief "that people would have listened to her impassioned argument, had she been a man" is, in many cases, valid...
In contrast, "when a female holdout expressed anger, participants became significantly more confident in their own opinion over the course of deliberation."
This dynamic—which held true for both male and female participants—meant that "men were able to exert more social pressure by expressing anger," whereas women actually lost influence when they did the same thing."
This is incredibly frustrating (and by my saying that, I'm sure a bunch of you just had some "irrational female alert" neurons start firing away). Every woman has experienced this, I'm sure, and I know that I have to be deeply calculated about expressing my emotions. If I express them fully (which, frankly, I don't think I know how to do anymore) people will almost always try to argue with me in the assumption that I'm being irrational and missing some key perspective; if I am too muted down, people will think it's not a big deal and won't take it seriously.
No comments:
Post a Comment