A new study has turned the spotlight on how emotions are viewed differently according to gender. It finds out that an emotional argument can undermine the woman’s credibility.
The findings published by the Psychology of Women Quarterly found that when a woman was asked to calm down during an argument or discussion, her credibility took a hit. However, the same wasn’t true for a man who could get equally emotional, if not more.
The study had participants responding to the interaction between a man and a woman. When the woman was asked to calm down as she got emotional in a situation of conflict, her argument was considered less legitimate.
Reports on the findings note that it further proved that a person cannot be rational and emotional, and when it came to women the emotional tone weakened her argument. They also added that participants believed that the emotional label did not apply to a man.
The reports quoted the study, “That’s because people don’t believe the “emotional” label when applied to men. The researchers say that participants “believed the emotional evaluation when it was directed toward women, but did not believe it when directed toward men. Specifically, when both women and men were called emotional in identical circumstances, women characters (in the disagreement) were perceived as more emotional than the men characters.”
Studies and reports have discussed how being emotional is a stumbling block for leadership as it could not be suitable for a high-stress job.
Another study published last year also found that women were perceived as good leaders when they didn’t express negative emotions.
