It’s a known fact that every once in a while a women will use her flirtatious charms to get her own way, but now colleagues are saying that it makes them a lot less trustworthy.
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The Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin study showed that although flirting will allow women to get ahead in the workplace, it will lead colleagues to trust them less as a result.
Research involved students watching videos of corporate negotiators, one being a woman playing with her hair and making flirtatious gestures, the other being a straight faced man.
The students rated the woman as a more likable character as the result of her flirting, but interestingly said this made her less trustworthy.
Seventy seven students were asked to watch the video, in which one male and one female acted as a negotiator, speaking directly into the camera.
The standard script required the actor to repeatedly reject buyers offers whereas the flirtatious script called for actors to use a playful tone of voice, smile, lean forward and touch their hair and face.
The students were then asked to rate on a scale of one to seven how flirtatious and sexual the negotiator was in order to get the best deal.
Being flirtatious showed negative connotations and they were seen less genuine and more manipulative when they were flirting.
Despite this, the flirty woman actor was seen as more likable. This is thought to be due to flirting being an attribute associated to women, and that people are often more sensitive to this behaviour.
Professor Laura Kray, of University California-Berkeley, said, “We begin by exploring the lay belief that women can use flirtation to their advantage in professional contexts and contrast it with trained negotiators’ negative views on flirtation.
“We discovered both an upside and a downside to flirting at the bargaining table. Although flirtation appears to be positively related to women’s likability, negotiators who flirted were judged to be less authentic than those who refrained from exercising their sexual power.”
The scientists behind the study believe that the playful nature of flirting can be advantageous to women when used in a subtle way to negotiate as it makes them more likeable and attractive.
This is thought to lead to women to get ahead in the workplace, but also become less trusted.
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