Does ‘Dominant’ Equal ‘Competent?’

From DICE, April 17, 2009...

Want to look competent? Get in touch with your dominant side. In a recent study, University of California, Berkley researchers found those who act more dominantly are perceived as more competent, even when they aren’t.

Organizational behavior and industrial relations Associate Professor Cameron Anderson and doctoral candidate Gavin Kilduff tested their “great pretender” theory on 17 four-student teams. They gave each team 45 minutes to design a mock non-profit environmental organization or a for-profit Web site. The winning team would receive a $400 prize. More importantly, the experiment required each participant to rate his or her colleagues’ level of influence on the group, and each participant’s level of competence.

The results: Team members with the most dominant personalities were rated the highest for such qualities as general intelligence, dependability, and self-discipline. Less outspoken workers were perceived as having less desirable traits, giving them high scores for being conventional and uncreative.

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