by Daniel Akst
Wall Street Journal
January 11, 2013
If the question is, “Can you do me a favor?” the answer is a lot more likely to be yes if the request is made of a woman.
That’s the implication of two studies conducted by six self-described “overcommitted ‘semi’-workaholic women” and presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Economics Association. In one study, MBA students were asked to recall agreeing to a favor on the job at a time when they preferred to say no. The female participants did the favor even though they were five times likelier to report having felt worn out, perhaps because they were also twice as likely to have been worried about the consequences of saying no.
In a second study, this one involving altruistic behavior in small groups, female undergraduates were 50% more likely to comply with an implicit request for a favor than were male students. The willingness of women to do favors in the workplace may lead them to become overburdened with low-skill tasks, making promotion less likely, the researchers said.
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