Study: Women can't afford to be angry

NEW HAVEN, Conn., April 4 (UPI) -- Women, whether running for president or applying for a retail job, cannot afford to get angry, a U.S. psychologist said.

Victoria Brescoll of Yale University and Eric Uhlmann at Northwestern University found that people accept and reward angry men, but view women who lose their temper as less competent.

The studies, published in the March issue of Psychological Science, found an angry woman loses status, no matter what her position.

In the studies, both men and women were shown videos of actors portraying men and women ostensibly applying for a job. The participants were asked to rate applicants' responsibility, their perceived competence, whether they should be hired and how much they should get paid.

Both men and women agreed: Angry men deserved more status, a higher salary and were expected to be better at the job than angry women.

However, when the actors expressed sadness, women applicants were ranked equally to men in status and competence -- but not in salary.

Brescoll -- who worked as a Congressional Fellow in Sen. Hillary Clinton's office in 2004 while preparing her doctoral thesis -- says it pays to stay emotionally neutral or at least explain what ticked you off in the first place.