A new study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that rudeness in the workplace is contagious, wherein even nice people who encounter rude behavior are more likely to react the same way in later interactions.
"When you experience rudeness, it makes rudeness more noticeable," said Trevor Foulk, study lead author and a doctoral student in management at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business Administration, in a university release. "You'll see more rudeness even if it's not there."
The researchers observed 90 students who were practicing negotiations with their classmates. The team asked them whether their negotiation partners were rude. The activity showed that those who perceived their partners to be rude were more likely to be perceived as rude by their next partners, suggesting that their initial partners had made them rude as well. The perception remained even after a week had passed and multiple negotiations were performed.
Experiencing rudeness is not the only way to get infected with the negative behavior. In the second observation, even witnessing rudeness directed to someone else can make you rude as well. The second experiment involved 47 students who were asked to select real words and nonsense words from a list after watching a video of rude and neutral workplace interaction. Those who witnessed the rude interaction picked the rude words as real words faster than those who had seen the neutral interaction.
The researchers described rudeness as similar to a virus that can easily spread and infect workers, thus creating a negative environment.
"Part of the problem is that we are generally tolerant of these behaviors, but they're actually really harmful," said Foulk. "Rudeness has an incredibly powerful negative effect on the workplace."
The researchers recommend employers take rudeness seriously if they want to maintain a peaceful and healthy work environment.
Workplace rudeness is so widespread that it is directly affecting the performance of workers. In another study, carried out by Harvard Business Review, half of the people said they were treated rudely at least once a week and almost half of them said they decreased their work efforts or the time they spent at work because of the negative experience.
