Mean Men Make More Money

No, seriously: a new study has found that there’s a correlation between personality and and earning potential, and — wait for it — nice girls finish last.

According to the Economist, researcher Guido Heineck discovered that,

using the British Household Panel Survey, which in 2005 asked questions to determine the psychological profile of respondents, that certain traits correlate with higher wages. But the relationships differ for each gender. For example, being neurotic is correlated with lower wages for women, but is not significant for men. Women also benefit from being conscientious, but possessing that trait does not have much bearing on male income.

In addition, “being agreeable is correlated with lower earnings for both genders,” because, apparently, no one has ever been able to combine courtesy with authority, and as such anything less than utter tyranny is regarded as a sign of passive weakness. Meanwhile, being extroverted and outgoing did absolutely no one any good, and “being open to new experiences,” with all its sinister implications, resulted in higher wages for folks of both sexes.

In short: conscientious, unneurotic women open to new experiences (of the inappropriate or foreign office varietal?) have “upper management” written all over them, where they’ll govern with high-earning neurotic male sourpusses over a bunch of friendly extroverts. It is noteworthy that, of the paragraph citing the laxness extended to male neuroses and conscientiousness, an Economist reader rejoicing in the name of “Doug Pascover” wrote, “The second paragraph is nothing but good news. I’ll drink to that, alone!” You’re on your way, mister.