Study finds mean people earn more money

The phrase "Nice guys finish last" appears to be the case in who gets paid the most.

According to a study by several researches, "agreeable" workers make significantly lower than their less agreeable counterparts, with the gap being wider among men.

The study, titled "Do Nice Guys—and Gals—Really Finish Last?", used survey data to examine "agreeableness" and found that men who disagreed far greater make 18%- or $9,772 annually- more in salary than those who agree. The salary disparity is far less among women, with disagreeable females making 5% or $1,828 than those who agree more.

Cornell professor Beth A. Livingston, who co-authored the study with Timothy A. Judge of the University of Notre Dame and Charlice Hurst of the University of Western Ontario, told the Wall Street Journal, "Nice guys are getting the shaft."

"The problem is, many managers often don't realize they reward disagreeableness," Livingston added. "You can say this is what you value as a company, but your compensation system may not really reflect that, especially if you leave compensation decisions to individual managers."

The study contained data from over 20 years from three different surveys, and interviewed 10,000 workers from a wide range of fields. The researchers also included a separate study  based on 460 business students asked to be fictional managers and review descriptions of possible employees. That separate study  revealed that being nice does not bring professional success, as those viewed as more agreeable were less likely to get the job.