New Study: Rudeness Impairs Performance and Willingness to Help Co-Workers

The University of Florida just put out a press release about an article published by Amir  Erez and Christine Porath in the Academy of Management Journal in October.  Erez reports that "We found that even when the rude behavior is pretty mild, it impairs a
person’s cognitive functioning and has spillover effects in how they
treat their co-workers.”  The press release goes on to say:

‘[T}he students who were treated rudely, or even imagined they had
been, solved fewer anagrams, recalled less information and found fewer
and less creative uses for a brick. They might suggest it be “used as a
door stop,” for example, instead of “selling it on e-Bay” or “hanging
it from a wall in the museum and calling it abstract art.”

The
study also tested participants’ willingness to help by having the
experimenter drop some books or pencils. Whether the rude behavior was
directed at them by the experimenter or delivered by a third party
assumingly unrelated to the study or the experimenter, they picked up
fewer books and pencils, if they chipped in to help at all.’

This controlled experiment compliments qualitative and quantitative research, which provide an ever growing pile of evidence that assholes aren’t just annoying, they undermine workplace effectiveness. The list of items to add to the Total Cost of Assholes seems to grow each day.