Successful people didn't get where they are by sittin' on ass.

A new study suggests that folks in positions of power are far less fazed by rejection. In fact, UC Berkeley researchers found, these kinds of folks are more likely to come back for more — to seek out “social bonding opportunities” despite previous rejection.

The research looked at …

… 445 men and women aged 18 to 82 and found that people assigned more authority tended to remain unfazed by rejection and negative feedback.

According to a summary they even sought to “to improve relations with their coworkers” regardless.

The work was presented last week at the annual conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in New Orleans:

Those who had been assigned supervisory roles acted with indifference to perceived snubs from their underlings while subordinates took offense to comparable barbs from their bosses.

Lead author Maya Kuehn:

When rejected instead of accepted, subordinates reported lower self-esteem and greater negative emotion, but supervisors did not show an adverse reaction to rejection.

So stop your whinin' and get to work. It's a new year.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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