Study: Silent treatment best way to deal with jerks

iStockphoto/CBS

The silent treatment is the best way to go when dealing with jerks, a New York-based study finds.

According to researchers at Baruch College, City University of New York, it's more mentally healthy to abruptly end a conversation with someone obnoxious than to continue speaking with them.

"It's depleting to force yourself to have difficult conversations when all you want to do is ignore the person," lead author Kristin Sommer, associate professor of psychology at Baruch College in New York, told Canadian wire service Postmedia news. "Ostracism can serve the regulatory goal of allowing people to conserve resources.

Sommer and her co-author, Juran Yoon, pulled data from two studies and nearly 120 people. Participants were asked to have a dialogue with another person and act either "highly likeable (polite and egalitarian) or highly unlikeable (rude and bigoted) acquaintance." The participants were then taken to a private room to complete an assignment.

Researchers concluded that participants performed worse on the task after ignoring a likeable person, and performance was better when participants used the silent treatment on an offensive person.

The study was published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

[venusvegasvada]

I don't think so.

Take a look at the Tea Partiers and the GOP in Congress.

[filmguy107]

(silence)

[judymar14]

Who paid for this ridiculous test?

[samuel5028]

Silence is a source of great strength. Silence is the way to avoid many problem.

[JaggidEdje]

...Anyone else think it is crazy that they spent money to research something that is just plain common sense?

[Juarin]

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think it's crazy. "Common sense" is proven wrong all the time. It was once "common sense" that the Earth was the center of the Universe. So, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to prove or disprove so-called common sense.

[waygone]

I disagree. The best way to deal with bullies is to hit them over the head with a chair when their back is turned.

[Ambivalent11]

aintfakin says:
does this mean there will be nothing but right wingers left posting in here?



No. Like you, most posters here belong to the Obama Food Stamp Army.

[Cowmpound]

Guess fakin was right on the money. How can the righties be sooooooooooo easy?

[KPeters_from_UK]

Am I suppose toignore this person AMBIVALENT11?

[dontknowitall]

Jerks? Silent treatment? Hummm that sums it up for the government of the U.S.A. towards it's people.

[aintfakin]

does this mean there will be nothing but right wingers left posting in here?

[m4surveys]

I'm ignoring you! ;-)