Selfish people get promoted easily
People with selfish and aggressive behaviour are seen as more attractive for leadership, and are most likely to be promoted at work, according to a new study.
The study found that those with more selfless, kind personalities were the most well-liked, but were simultaneously perceived as less attractive candidates for leadership and were overlooked for promotion, the Daily Mail reported.
It found that aggression implied strength, while altruistic tendencies were perceived as a sign of weakness.
The study, from the Kellogg School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, also discovered that those with the kinder personalities were the most popular in the groups, but they were also considered weak or gullible.
Those with more dominant and aggressive behaviour were seen as 'alpha' personalities.
"Being selfish makes you seem more dominant and being dominant makes you seem more attractive as a leader, especially when there's competition," co-author Robert Livingston, of the Kellogg School, told the website Today.
"On a subconscious level this is the conclusion people are coming to: Kindness equals weakness," he explained.
Dr Livingston believes that this tendency to associate aggression with leadership "is an explanation on why we get corruption."
The study found that those with more selfless, kind personalities were the most well-liked, but were simultaneously perceived as less attractive candidates for leadership and were overlooked for promotion, the Daily Mail reported.
It found that aggression implied strength, while altruistic tendencies were perceived as a sign of weakness.
The study, from the Kellogg School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, also discovered that those with the kinder personalities were the most popular in the groups, but they were also considered weak or gullible.
Those with more dominant and aggressive behaviour were seen as 'alpha' personalities.
"Being selfish makes you seem more dominant and being dominant makes you seem more attractive as a leader, especially when there's competition," co-author Robert Livingston, of the Kellogg School, told the website Today.
"On a subconscious level this is the conclusion people are coming to: Kindness equals weakness," he explained.
Dr Livingston believes that this tendency to associate aggression with leadership "is an explanation on why we get corruption."
What an article and all from Kellogg, Stanford and Tepper have got to the same conclusion or rather findings, that selfish is sexy, successful and leads the bunch of altruists, kind people. To me it appears, we need to understand the real meaning of word selfish as understood by the scholars form the above mentioned universities. To me the selfish here is self-centered, abusive, exploitative authoritarian, conscience less, zero sensitive, accommodation conscience, thick skinned and hoarse voice, spineless and no-character to emulate. I am not sure Alpha males are selfish as the research article above says. Alpha males are narcissists, know-all folks, who will always have a say in anything under the sun, from space technology to psycho-economic analysis in fiscal debilitated economy to trans-laser surgery in neuroscience. Anything but Alpha males are super-confident people who lead a pack of motivated people for a successful journey. They are not selfish. They do all that for others as for Alpha males, it is just not about being only successful, it is largely about being a leader, a winner. Selfish people are actually looser as other than success, nothing else remains with the after a wave of cosmetic peak in career.
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