The researchers, Trevor Foulk, Andrew Woolum and Amir Erez published their findings on June 29, 2015 in the Journal of Applied Psychology (“Catching Rudeness is Like Catching a Cold: The Contagion Effects of Low-Intensity Negative Behaviors”). To reach this conclusion, they had 90 graduate students negotiate with classmates. They found that, “…those who rated their initial negotiation partner as rude were more likely to be rated as rude by a subsequent partner…” (Science Daily, supra.) This effect continued even when the researchers allowed a week to pass between the first and second negotiation sessions.

The researchers also tested 47 undergraduate students to determine if “rudeness directed at others can also prime our brains to detect discourtesy.” (Id.). The found the answer to be “yes”. The researchers requested the undergraduates to distinguish between real and nonsense words on a list. But before giving them the list, the researcher primed the undergraduates for rudeness or a lack of it, by having them observe one of two staged interactions between a “participant” who apologized for being late and the study leader. When the leader was rude to the tardy actor, “… the undergraduates identified rude words on the list of real words significantly faster than participants who had observed a neutral interaction.” (Id.)

The researchers also discovered that merely witnessing rudeness – bystander rudeness- can cause us to be rude as well. They had participants watch a video of rude workplace behavior and then had the participants respond to an email that was neutral in tone. They found that watching the rudeness rubbed off as the participants tended to be more hostile in their response to the email than those who had viewed a polite office interaction before drafting the response.

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