Intelligent women get less help at work, study finds

High intelligence is usually counted as an asset at work. But a new study suggests that for women, it can also lead to worse treatment from colleagues.

Across 826 people in the United States and China, women who scored higher on an intelligence test were rated by their teammates as more hostile, received less help and were undermined more often. Men with high scores faced no such penalty. In one group, they were treated better.

The study examined whether people's cognitive ability affects how their teammates treat them, and whether that differs between women and men.

Since it was published this year, the researcher behind the study, Nitya Chawla, says, women have written to her saying the findings matched their own experience at work. Some told her they had wondered whether they were to blame for hostility.

How was the study done, and what are its limits?

The researchers ran two studies. The first followed 432 business students at a US public university working in small teams on a consulting project for real organizations. The second surveyed 394 full-time employees working in teams at a financial company in China.

Intelligence here means cognitive ability measured with a standardized test of reasoning and problem-solving that employers use in hiring. Teammates were not told of anyone's scores. They rated one another, and a few weeks later each person reported how much help they had received and how often they had been undermined, for instance by having information withheld.

The effects were small, and the study shows a link, not proof that colleagues' perceptions caused the treatment. Help and mistreatment were reported by the participants themselves, and the study did not look at race or ethnicity. In the student group, the difference between women and men was no longer statistically significant when two participants with extremely low scores were included.

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Why are intelligent women seen as hostile at work?

The researchers point to social role theory, the idea that people expect men and women to fit traditional roles: men as capable and assertive, women as warm and supportive. A woman with high cognitive ability breaks that expectation, and colleagues may assume she lacks warmth.

"It's that automatic, implicit assumption that takes place alongside the presence of intelligence that then drives these more negative interpersonal behaviors," Chawla told DW.

In both groups, women with higher scores were rated as more hostile. Among the employees in China, they were also rated as less warm. Women seen as more hostile reported less help, both with their work and on a personal level, and more undermining.

The team also checked whether the women were simply behaving differently. Higher-scoring women were rated as somewhat more domineering, but that did not explain why they received less help or more mistreatment. The findings point to colleagues' assumptions, Chawla says, rather than to anything the women did.

Do men with high intelligence scores face the same treatment?

No, men with high intelligence scores do not face the same treatment. Among the students in the United States, a man's score made no difference to how his teammates rated or treated him.

Among the employees in China, men with higher scores were rated as less hostile, received more help and were mistreated less often. The authors suggest the difference between the two groups may reflect cultural differences in gender norms, but they did not test this.

Should women hide their intelligence at work?

No, Chawla says. "That would be really the wrong conclusion to draw."

Small effects still matter, she argues, because they are experienced day after day. Over time, this kind of treatment can lead to anxiety, self-doubt and a sense of not belonging. "These experiences and these feelings can become very, very burdensome over time," she said.

What can managers do about gender bias at work?

Chawla puts the responsibility on workplaces rather than on women. Managers, she says, should keep track of how members of their teams treat one another, and organizations should hold regular check-ins to see whether employees are getting equal support.

Individuals can ask themselves a simple question, she says: would they react the same way if that colleague were a man?