Agreeable people tend to be kinder and more accommodating in social situations, which you might think could add to their success in life. However, one downside of agreeableness is potentially lower earnings. Research has shown the answer to this and other puzzles; some of them may surprise you.

First, and perhaps most obvious, agreeable individuals are less adept at a type of negotiation called distributive bargaining. As we discuss in Chapter 14, distributive bargaining is less about creating win–win solutions and more about claiming as large a share of the pie as possible. Because salary negotiations are generally distributive, agreeable individuals often negotiate lower salaries for themselves than they might otherwise get.

Second, agreeable individuals may choose to work in industries or occupations that earn lower salaries, such as the “caring” industries of education and health care. Agreeable individuals are also attracted to jobs both in the public sector and in nonprofit organizations. Third, the earnings of agreeable individuals also may be reduced by their lower drive to emerge as leaders and by their tendency to engage in lower degrees of proactive task behaviors, such as thinking of ways to increase organizational effectiveness.

While being agreeable certainly doesn’t appear to help your paycheck, it does provide other benefits. Agreeable individuals are better liked at work, more likely to help others at work, and generally happier at work and in life.

Nice guys and gals may finish last in terms of earnings, but wages do not define a happy life and, on that front, agreeable individuals have the advantage.

Questions

5-15. Do you think employers must choose between agreeable employees and top performers? Why or why not?

5-16. The effects of personality often depend on the situation. Can you think of some job situations in which agreeableness is an important virtue and some in which it is harmful to job performance?

5-17. In some research we’ve conducted, the negative effect of agreeableness on earnings has been stronger for men than for women (that is, being agreeable hurt men’s earnings more than women’s). Why do you think this might be the case?