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The Science of Incivility
An anonymous reader writes: Stress causes health issues — we've known this for years. But what's harder to figure out is what exactly qualifies as stress. It's easy to understand that working as an EMT or police officer can be stressful. But as medical researchers are beginning to learn, minor stress events common to all workplaces eventually add up — the cumulative stress from workplace incivility can have huge consequences for both health and performance. "A study published in 2012 that tracked women for 10 years concluded that stressful jobs increased the risk of a cardiovascular event by 38 percent. ... In [another] study, the experimenter belittled the peer group of the participants, who then performed 33 percent worse on anagram word puzzles and came up with 39 percent fewer creative ideas during a brainstorming task focused on how they might use a brick." Many people brush off efforts to be civil, saying they have too little time, or too much on their mind. But further studies have shown it takes very little — a smile here and there, or the occasional "thank you" — to have surprisingly strong effects on how people are perceived. The article argues that it's worth the effort, given the costs for failure.
Be nice to people on the way up, because you're going to meet them again on the way down :)
FDA bans frowns and criticism citing impact to healthcare costs
so NSA will wonder what you're up to.
And one might want to look at how the nastiness of Internet forums contributes to this as well. What happens when an entire society is constantly bombarded with the kind of crap we see every day?
So next time you decide to post some trolling bullcrap, remember that your behavior does, indeed, have a real effect on the other people involved.
Don't be a dick. It's not that hard and we're all better off.
Love sees no species.
The reasons for being people incivil seem rather petty. The most common reason I find myself getting short with people in working life is when they aren't listening or are otherwise ignoring reasonable questions and requests. Unfortunately a lot of people feel that if they blow someone off politely and then that person repeats the request or question in a more direct manner, that person has some kind of personality defect or "communication issue".
Typical conversation that is sure to end in problems:
I can't be the only one who has experienced this. Workplaces seem to be full of delicate snowflakes who either ignore any criticism of their work, and when they can't ignore it interpret it as 'incivility'. The article alludes to this though: it says there's often an inverse correlation between perceived politeness and competence. Perhaps people understand at some deeper level that people who are polite often don't get results, or don't tell it like it is.
I eat mean people.
It saves trouble.
There are other things that can make your life worse off, even though it might not seemingly cause any harm at all.
Feelings of negativity lead to negative health issues, namely being subjected to annoying, boring or outright enraging activities.
"Cringe-watching", the act of watching something you hate so much just to see how awful it is, has even been linked to health issues pretty damn well despite being a recent-ish thing.
But it just follows the same principle of being in a negative environment and having to do it regardless of your opinion or feelings.
On that note as well, boredom, boredom can lead straight to depression if you leave yourself in that situation for long periods of time.
Keep check of your overall mood every day. You'll probably be very surprised even if you thought you knew yourself.
All those negative and "neutral" feelings build up. Don't let them become the basis of your personality.
Get hobbies, make your job more fun, optimize how you work, do anything and everything to make your place of work better, everyone will benefit, including yourself.
It might seem fruitless, but things will tend to become better if everyone were to pitch in.
Even people that hate each other can open dialogue with each other in a calm environment and come to agreements.
It ain't no hippy dream, it can work. You just need to try.
Most people don't want to be dicks. They just do it out of necessity.
Doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, applies at all classes.
that both of them are simply assholes.
38% increased risk of cardiovascular event.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
I think incivility in work places would be common in places with poor pay, larger worker turn over, very interchangeable skill sets among the workers, and tough management practices. As one who has been solving crosswords for two decades (not the NYT trivia based one, the London Times Crypic with a decent mix of anagrams, double definitions, cryptic definitions, hidden clues and puns). I can tell you anything can put off anagram performance. Somedays you look at the words and the solutions leap at you. Somedays you don't get it. For all you know it could be the breakfast you had that morning.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
In [another] study, the experimenter belittled the peer group of the participants, who then...came up with 39 percent fewer creative ideas during a brainstorming task focused on how they might use a brick.
I have an idea what to do with the brick...
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
That's a reason women tend to live longer than men, because historically they haven't been in the "workforce".
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
It strikes me that making unfounded allegations of racism for political gain is pretty uncivil, and that has been done in the case of Obamacare, and other matters during the current administration.
“It isn’t about the administration, and it should not be about the administration of the state nor federal level when it comes to Obamacare,” she said. “But in fact it is. And why is that? I have talked to so many members in the House and Senate and you know what it comes down to? Are you ready for this? It is not about how many federal dollars we can receive. You ready? You want to know what it’s about? It’s about race. Now nobody wants to talk about that. It’s about the race of this African-American president. . . . It comes down to the race of the president of the U.S., which causes people to disconnect and step away from the substance of the bill.” -- head of the Louisiana Democratic party, state senator Karen Carter Peterson (New Orleans)
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Ah, good, a live subject! Can you please tell us the causes of your incivility in this post? Your input will extend the boundaries of scientific knowledge and humanity will be most grateful. Thanks.
Something that has been in the news a few times is how some places are better to live than others.
I regularly see people from the USA strongly disputing this. How can anywhere possibly be better to live than the US? You have your Constitution, various amendments and some of you have a lot of money.
If this is right, perhaps it is to do with manners. So often your countryfolk seem brusque at best and just plain rude a lot of the time. This is definitely not all of you and not everyone in Denmark and Bhutan are amazingly polite at all times. What is evident though is that rudeness can be taken as a badge of honour in some places. In others politeness is seen as the target.
Example: A couple of years ago, I was taking part in a discussion about the treatment of transgender people. My attitude is that if someone has gone through all "that process", it is just good manners to call them what they want to be. This was taken by some that I am somewhere in the LGBTIQ... spectrum. I'm not. I'm straight white Northern European but also a (usually) polite Brit.
It would be interesting to compare where is supposed to be good and bad places to live with their local norms of politeness.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
And it's not like the "research paper" (i.e. the New Testament) has been lost to history, like so much other scientific data gets lost. Flawed as it is due to translation errors and redaction, "love one another" and "treat thy neighbor as thyself" hold up pretty well in 2015 AD as well as it did in 1,000,000 BC.
And it's not like he is the only in recorded history or philosophy saying this.
I guess my point is that while it's interesting to have actual data confirming the correlation between office environment and productivity is good to have, we already knew this to be true. Why are funds being wasted on such when there are so many gaping fiscal wounds in the world of education to be filled?
Not too long ago, a company spent US$100K or more to hire me and move me across the country to work for them. It was on a project I really believed in and wanted to make a serious contribution to. Unfortunately, my supervisor turned out to be a jerk, lacking in basic civility, and as soon as I could, I moved on. In principle, that company should be appalled, but in practice, they have no real monitoring to detect this sort of thing (and I'm certainly not going to tell them).
These days, when it comes to hiring, or being hired, I look for the basic ability to get along with people. Technical skill is a distant second. Lack of skill can be a problem, but jackasses are just boat anchors, dragging down the entire team.
"Words like 'please' and 'thank-you' are like the air in your bicycle tyres -- they cost nothing but make your journey through life much smoother"
I recall being singled out by the leader on a training course many years ago where we had to role play asking someone to do extra work when there was no direct management chain of command -- i.e. persuasion rather than authority. In a room of about 30 people I was the only one who said 'please' during the request and 'thank-you' at the end. I don't think the others were necessarily rude or lacking civility - but that, at the time, 'macho demanding' was all the rage when it came to management.
Honestly - how hard is it to be polite?
I completely disagree that politeness is more important than technical correctness. If I know that somebody was born a male and used modern technology to turn into w female looking person ai still consider that person a male and will not change my definition of them for their sake. It is just not going to happen. I don't mean to be in their face, I believe in live and let live to this absolute. But I will not change nomenclature for anybody's sake.
You can't handle the truth.
I've also read about how a person who is harboring negative emotions, but never lets them go and tries to pretend to be cheerful can also become stressed. Having very few outlets for social stress can be bad as well, the stresses don't just come from someone else being a little rude. Social interactions are complex things, and I would know considering my level of introversion. Two sides often exist in any scenario.
This isn't to say I think it's perfectly fine to be an asshole all the time for very little reason, being respectful and courteous is worthwhile. But when you are around the type of people who carry their feelings on their shoulders and force you to be unconditionally kind and uptight every waking moment you are around them, I imagine that would drive a lot of people insane.
The people who can't take a tiny bit of criticism (even if it's undue) here and there, or just love being offended for the sake of it, may very well get more stressed out around a lot of folks. But they could likely cause just as much stress to people around them who lack other outlets.
I don't spend a lot of time in social environments, but It really looks to me like the people who take pride in being offended are just as stressful as those who take pride in being offensive, even when behind the barrier of the Internet.
Perhaps many people get subtly (or not-so-subtly) rubbed the wrong way by inhumane aspects of modern society/technology/the world of work & business, & it builds up, & many incidentally just dispel the discomfiture & such by lashing out at those around them, be it jokingly, passive aggressively, or outright abusive language/behavior. It sure takes a lot of metacognition (& meta-metacognition ("mindfulness"?)) to keep a handle on that sort of phenomenon & in the process (hopefully) take a more active role to heal themselves & those around them, especially individuals who are suffering from behavioral complexes of this variety. And best of all to change the inhumane aspects of our world!
I'm curious: The bible recognizes, accepts, and at places condones slavery. What would Jesus have said about this subject? Also, should we take direction from the bible on this issue?
Debt slavery with a six year maximum term.
Exodus 21:1-3
"1 Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. 2 When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. 3 If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. "
Example of doing the wrong thing : Jeremiah 34:10-11
Example of doing the right thing: 2 Chronicles 28:8-15.
Enslaving war prisoners (which is the kind of slavery I assume you're talking about) is considered kidnapping and a capital crime.
Exodus 21:16
"Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death."
Also: Jesus himself got angry and tore up the bazaar in the temple. I'm trying to be like Jesus in all ways (not making that up), and I'm wondering if it's OK to do that? Is getting angry on occasion, and doing damage to public areas OK for the informed activist?
The Temple courts are not a "bazaar". They were supposed to be for worship by gentiles, who could not proceed further into the temple complex.
In addition the money changers and animal sellers in the Temple were ripping off Jewish pilgrims (which the pilgrims knew, but couldn't do anything about it).
And finally: What does the bible have to say about homosexuality? Many *many* biblical scholars through history that have interpreted the bible as being four-square against homosexuality - should we accept their interpretations because they are scholars and have studied the field extensively?
You don't need scholars. You can read Leviticus 18:22-29 and Romans 1:18-32.
So the AC is stating that a person is more likely a sociopath than someone who honestly is polite and grateful that people do what they say, rather than having some sort of expected entitlement over others.
That does indeed say something about the society they have grown up in.
The rudest people I've ever met in my life have all been European. I'm a very polite person, so I presume it's because they knew that I was American and were unable to stir up any empathy for somebody so culturally different and "other". Perhaps it isn't valid to take your trans-cultural interaction as an accurate representation of intra-cultural interactions.
Yep. I traveled from St Petersburg back to Canada through Frankfurt. Frankfurt Airport was barely distinguishable from St Petersburg manners-wise. Canada was night and day (I live there). Flying there through Zurich was nice. Visiting the US (NY, Detroit, LA) was quite nice. So yeah, politeness points for North America, honourable mention for Switzerland. Purely anecdotal of course.
Sad to hear that they mean little to you -- they mean a lot to me and I wouldn't use them without meaning or sincerity.
I guess it comes down to expectations: either go through life assuming that people are (in the main) reasonable, friendly and nice) and then try to maintain this by behaving well -- or assume everyone's out to manipulate you and deprive you of your 'rightful entitlement' and 'get your retaliation in first'.
I know the approach I prefer - and the type of people I like working with; I also respect others may have a different viewpoint.
And as to the other comment (several replies above) based on my spelling of tyres implying that I live in a socialist paradise -- you really have no idea of the realities of life in the UK and the nature of our government if you truly believe that
You're not being technically correct, you're just being a dick. There's nothing technically correct about calling someone transgender by the pronoun they've gone away from. Unlike actual technical correctness it doesn't achieve anything at all.
I knew a friend of mine for about 10 years before I knew she was transgender. I can tell you if I started referring to her as "he" it would have confused a whole hell of a lot of people. But in your world apparently that's OK, because people pronouns should be chosen by an invisible genetic artefact that it's impossible to determine without their explicit permission, as opposed to visually which is how everyone else does it.
So tell me this: if you discovered that someone was XY but had severe testosterone insensitivity (i.e. they look completely female) would you start her them "he"? And before you get too hung up on genetics, what would youcall someonw with the XXY karyotype?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I have seen two stress generators in play at various jobs. One huge cause is when a company has economic wars and can not afford to pay the going rate for workers who really are productive. Employees tend to turn on each other as if one getting ahead decreases the others' chances of ever getting a raise. It can reach the point of employees destroying the work of other employees to make them look bad to management. The second cause of note occurs in jobs that are reliable and lasting in which there is a great deal of hostility when an opening is given to an applicant other than some friend of workers already in a department. The usual tactic is to go to the department manger and give false reports of the new persons job performance. And it can also involve sabotage of the work output of the new employee. In the construction trades peoples' lives can actually be at risk as the injury or death of a worker is all too easy to create.
You seem to be verifying what I said.
There is a serious difference between saying negative things to/about someone and being rude. Learning that is one of the things that happens as people grow up.
Telling someone to their face that you don't like them does not show that you have anything other than a severe lack of tact. That is not honesty. At times, it can be straightforward stupidity.
There are very few people that I/we loathe. There are certainly plenty around that I would rather be somewhere else than next to but that is not the same thing. Loathing implies a wish to harm. One of the last times this country wished anyone harm, our prime minister obediently followed your president into Iraq. That was one of the most amazingly stupid things ever done by a British leader in centuries. We are now living with the consequences. I want us to go back to not loathing as soon as possible!
As for the empire, my ancestors gave it back to the peoples that their ancestors had taken it from. On the whole, we are still on good terms with most of them.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Being a dick is my right, first and foremost, but like I said: live and let live. As to the question at hand: you are born in a male body and have to cut off your junk and do other procedure to appear as if you are female, afaic you are still a male. You are fucked up, but male.
You can't handle the truth.
Being a dick is my right, first and foremost,
Sure, being a dick is not literally illegal, I never claimed it was. And my not-literally-illegal-to-say-so right is to call you out for being a dick.
You dick.
As to the question at hand:
No, you completely ignored the question at hand because you didn't like the answer it would have forced you to give.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Where did you force me to do anything at all? I don't care about your friend and I don't bother anybody and they shouldn't bother me. There are males who look female, that's nothing new. They are still men regardless of their broken hormone system.
You can't handle the truth.
Maybe they were just thinking too hard about using the brick on the experimenter to come up with other uses.
You do realize that, if critics of the ACA are accused of racism, there's different possible reasons. One is that they are racist (it should be plenty obvious that there are still a lot of racists out there). Peterson says she's talked to a lot of politicians and came to the conclusion that Obama's race was the most important factor in the debate on the ACA. Since I don't automatically assume she's lying, it would appear that there is indeed a lot of racism involved.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Where did you force me to do anything at all?
I didn't force you to do anything, and apparently I didn't force you to read my post. To give a sane and coherent answer would have forced you to actually think about what you're saying.
You can't be aresd though which is why you're not answering my question.
I don't care about your friend and I don't bother anybody and they shouldn't bother me.
You care enough to (in the hypothetical case) switch from calling her "her" to "him".
There are males who look female, that's nothing new.
You know, try actually reading the post I made previously.
SJW n. One who posts facts.