Experiencing -- or even witnessing -- rudeness in the workplace can trigger a part of the brain that can make you rude too, according to a new study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology last month that suggests the offensive behaviour can be contagious.
Lead author Trevor Foulk and his team from the University of Florida performed three studies looking at how people react to rude behaviour.
In the first scenario, 90 graduate students each engaged in a business negotiation and then rated how rude their partners were. The researchers based rude behaviour on whether participants ignored, excluded or were negative towards the other person.
The study found that those who rated their negotiating partner as rude in the first week were themselves rated as rude in a second negotiation a week later, Foulk said.
The two studies had 47 undergraduate students watch rude and polite staged scenarios, Foulk said on CTV's Canada AM.
A staged encounter between a study leader and study participant who arrived late was witnessed by the students. The leader was either rude or polite in tone to the latecomer. Students were then asked to identify "rude words" from a list. The study found that students who witnessed a rude interaction recognized rude words more quickly.
Students also watched a video of either a rude or polite workplace interaction. They were then asked to respond to a neutral-toned customer email. The researchers found that those who watched the rude interaction were more likely to be hostile in their email than those who witnessed the polite conversation.
Foulk believes the study shows that, not only will people be more hostile if a person is rude to them, but also that they are more likely to be rude if they just witness the behaviour.
This shows that rudeness spreads "like a virus," he said.
"When you experience rudeness, when your brain processes a rude encounter, it sort of wakes up the rude part of the brain," Foulk said. "You just notice it more in your environment."
Foulk hopes this provokes a conversation among employers to recognize rude behaviour and change how employees treat each other in the workplace.
"Rudeness is really harmful. I think most people think they'll just get over it," Foulk said. "I hope this study starts to make people think maybe we shouldn't accept rudeness."
