Mental Health

Why Glassholes Are Seen as Better Leaders

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Apr 21, 2014 05:58 PM EDT

Could being a "Glasshole" make people think you're a better boss? According to scientists, the answer is yes.

While wearing the Google's latest gadget might get you some strange looks, new research reveals that wearing Glass might make people think of you as a better boss.

New research reveals that people who possess the latest technological gadgets like phone, tablet or wearable doodads are perceived as better and more authoritative leaders.

Researchers noted that the findings were particularly pronounced in women, according to the Daily Mail.

The latest study found that people who know the latest technologies are seen as leaders and more authoritative on other participants.

"Familiarity with and usage of new high-tech products appears to be a common manifestation of innovative behavior," lead researcher Steve Hoeffler of Vanderbilt and Stacy Wood of North Carolina State University and their team wrote in the study.

"Those who are tech savvy are also perceived as authoritative on other subjects and as leaders," researchers added.

In the first part of the study, interviews were recorded using actors who were labeled according to their appearance.

"We taped them once where they took down a note using an old-fashioned calendar, then did another one where they whipped out an electronic calendar and did it that way," Hoeffler said, according to Daily Mail.

After viewing the interviews, the findings revealed that participants overwhelmingly perceived the actors using the electronic calendars as being more authoritative.

Experiments also revealed that women who used modern technological tools actually benefited more than their male counterparts.

"This finding runs counter to the backlash effect typically found in impression management research in business settings," study authors wrote in the paper. "Female job evaluations typically suffer after engaging in the same self-promoting impression management strategies that benefit their male counterparts."

"Just possession is 90 percent of the game," he said. "And there are maybe 10 percent of situations where you have to display the ability to use it."

The latest findings are published in The Journal of Product Innovation Management.

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