An NPR program, The Takeaway, broadcast a series of stories on the different social responses to expressions of anger from men and women. Links are given below. The asymmetry is not trivial.
The Tuesday broadcast: One set of experiments simulated a jury online with a single juror who is holding out and trying to convince the remaining jurors to change their minds. The holdout juror, not a real person, was given a male or female name and the fake juror expressed their opinions in either angry or neutral language. The impact on groups of jurors was then assessed. When the holdout juror's argument was expressed in neutral language, the test jurors changed their minds about 7% of the time. But when anger was expressed by men, the test jurors changed their minds about 18% of the time, while the angry woman juror changed no minds at all. Clearly, an angry male was more persuasive than a neutral male or female, while an angry female was completely unpersuasive.
In another experiment, people were shown videos of lawyers delivering closing arguments the experimenters wrote up. The arguments were delivered in a neutral or angry way by male and female attorneys and people listening to the arguments were asked to assess the attorneys. People in the experiment rated the angry male attorney arguments more highly than the calm arguments. By contrast, angry female attorneys were rated lower than neutral female attorneys.
The experimenters conclude that “things are very complex for women in the workplace,” especially in professions where women need to persuade people. The experience is not uncommon among women in the workforce. Emotion is a powerful tool in persuasion and if women are deprived of it, they are at a disadvantage. In situations where expressing emotion is appropriate, being neutral and calm can be seen as weakness. The playing field is not even for men and women, at least when it comes to expressions and use of anger in the workplace.
The researcher commented that in general, when a woman expresses anger in public, that is perceived to reflect a problem with the woman. By contrast, social science research indicates that when men express anger, people generally assume there is a legitimate reason having nothing to do with the man.
This is a social gender norm that arguably leads to economic inefficiency by negating a useful workplace tool. Women’s talents are being wasted by this social norm. The researchers argue that society needs to adapt to appropriate shows of emotion by women in society.
What that does not consider is other ways to see this situation. Maybe society should be less accepting of shows of emotion by men. Or, maybe nothing can be done because asymmetric social responses to anger are deeply ingrained in human cognitive and social biology.
Based on the information discussed in the Tuesday broadcast, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that. And, there is some evidence that the # MeToo movement, with public expressions of anger by many women, is beginning to normalize women’s expressions of anger about sexual harassment and assault. That is some evidence that maybe the norm can be softened completely or to some lesser extent, but it will likely take time and educating the public.
Monday: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/releasing-her-rage
Tuesday: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/women-are-punished-expressing-anger-men-are-rewarded
Wednesday: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/workplace-strategies-women-and-their-rage
Thursday: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/mother-mother-pop-cultures-response-womens-anger
B&B orig: 7/29/18
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