London, Jul 23 :So you thought indulging in a bit of flirting at work was harmless? Think again!
According to a new study, flirting at work can help women get ahead, but colleagues distrust them and see them as “less genuine”.
Researchers from University of California, Berkeley found that although feminine charm can help women seem more likeable, they are perceived as less authentic and genuine when they flirt in the workplace.
The distrust built up among colleagues could prove to be damaging in the long run, researchers were quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
The research involved 77 students, 51 women and 26 men watching videos of corporate negotiators, one of whom was a woman who touched her hair and made flirtatious gestures.
She was rated as much more likeable than a male negotiator, but student volunteers also said she was less trustworthy.
”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,” Professor Laura Kray, of University California-Berkeley, said.
”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,” she said
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