Study Shows Speaking Up More Makes You Seem More Competent... Even if You're Not

Studying body language reveals really interesting things during group tasks. It reminds me of a study on how perceived authority makes people jerks, even when leaders are picked out of thin air. Researchers did something similar to the study in the link - break people into small groups; give the subjects a fake task that they thought they were working on together but were unknowingly being tested on how subtle teamwork and leadership issues; randomly assigned somebody to be a leader; etc.

Then they gave them cookies to eat while they did their work.

And they found - without fail! - that it was always the leader that ate an extra cookie (they'd serve 4 cookies for 3 people), ate and spoke with their mouths open, spilled crumbs everywhere, did the least work, and just were general slobs. Regardless of gender, education, yadda yadda.

Scary that we all have jerk potential, no?

I would love to read something about those predictable outcomes. Do you have a link ?

Studies which confirm intuitive truths can be valuable, especially when that truth is cultural or contradicted by other popular wisdom (i.e. "it is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt;" or contrast this American study's results with the common idea of Japanese as valuing the humble, quiet type).

whether or not it is obvious is irrelevant. statistical studies with control samples show the degree to which it is true.

I see karma as a way to motivate more activity on the site. It turns participating into a game that you can win, which gets people's competitive juices flowing. We all love measuring ourselves against other people.