As women have increased their ranks in the workplace, most will admit to experiencing rude behavior and incivility.
Men and women who were employed full time answered questions about the incivility they experienced at work during the last month.
"Across the three studies, we found consistent evidence that women reported higher levels of incivility from other women than their male counterparts," Gabriel said.
"In other words, women are ruder to each other than they are to men, or than men are to women.
"But when we compared the average levels of incivility reported, female-instigated incivility was reported more often than male-instigated incivility by women in our three studies.".
This suggests men actually get a social credit for partially deviating from their gender stereotypes, a benefit that women are not afforded.
The study, "Further Understanding Incivility in the Workplace: The Effects of Gender, Agency and Communion," is forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology. »