Source: HuffingtonPost.com by Laura Stampler on 8/16/11 Thanks to @ClaudiaChan

While some studies defy expectations, others confirm long-held stereotypes.

In a paper that will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology titled "Do Nice Guys -- And Gals -- Really Finish Last? The Joint Effects of Sex and Agreeableness on Income," for example, researchers found that the answer to that timeworn question was a resounding "yes."

Results indicated that disagreeable people -- men in particular -- earn substantially more in the workforce than their agreeable colleagues.

But the study affirmed another long-held belief as well: in case you were in doubt, gender double standards still exist in the workplace.

While data collected in the 2008 Census showed that American women earned approximately 77 cents to a man’s dollar -- with a gap that was larger for Latina and African American women -- the agreeability study compared how personality was linked to gendered wage inequality.

In one part of the study, researchers had 460 undergrads at Southeastern University complete a study in which they had to act as human resource managers for a fictional company. They were given descriptions of eight equally-experienced candidates' qualifications as well as the individuals' behavior towards other people. The students were then asked to determine whether or not the candidates should be fast-tracked to management positions. Agreeable candidates were less likely to be recommended for advancement. Female candidates in general were less likely to be recommended.

Although disagreeable men earned 18.31 percent ($9,772) more than agreeable men, disagreeable women only earned 5.47 percent (or $1,828) more than agreeable women. Furthermore, regardless of whether they were agreeable or disagreeable, women still earned less than even the disadvantaged "nice guys." The gap between women, generally, and agreeable men was almost as large as the agreeable-disagreeable gap among the men.

"The trick is that the premium for being disagreeable is much stronger for men than it is for women," the report stated. 

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