An interesting new study examines language type and gender discrimination:

The study, published in Management Science on Feb. 17, found that participants in an experiment more often followed advice when the people giving the advice used assertive “cheap talk,” statements that cannot be verified as true. Examples of such statements are often found in job seeking cover letters, such as “I have extremely strong problem-solving skills.”

The experiment participants followed the advice people gave at similar rates regardless of their gender — even though they thought other people would be less likely to follow the advice of the female leaders.

“It was surprising. We didn’t see actual discrimination: the subjects themselves seemed to respond about the same to men and women,” said Manian. “Yet, after the experiment was over, and we asked the participants what they thought we’d find, many of them expected discrimination.”

Read the full article here