Nice Guys Earn Less Money

It's true, nice guys do finish last, at least when it comes to earning money. Or so says a study that followed 9,000 working people for a decade. The study found that "disagreeable" men earn 18.31 percent ($9,772) more than their agreeable peers. Since the women in the study earned, on average, $4,787 less than the men, the economic penalty for being a nice man is much worse than for being a woman, and, in fact, the difference between men and women may all be accounted for by women being nicer on average. The researchers think that one trait of the disagreeable accounts for most of the difference:

They are willing to “aggressively advocate for their position during conflicts.” While more agreeable people are quick to compromise for the good of the group — conflict is never fun — their disagreeable colleagues insist on holding firm. They don’t mind fighting for what they want.

And while we're on the subject of social psychology, let me mention this study that shows men stop thinking about what a woman is thinking and feeling when they see her in a bikini.