Intelligent women get less help at work, study finds

Women who scored high on intelligence tests were seen as more hostile by their teammates and got less help, a new study finds. High-scoring men faced no such penalty. Research explains why. High intelligence is usually counted as an asset at work.

But a new study suggests that for women, it can also lead to worse treatment from colleagues. Across 826 people in the United States and China , women who scored higher on an intelligence test were rated by their teammates as more hostile, received less help and were undermined more often. Men with high scores did not receive such treatment, and in one group, they were treated better. The study examined whether people's cognitive ability affects how their teammates treat them and whether that differs between women and men.

Since it was published this year, Nitya Chawla, an associate professor at UCL School of Management in London and the researcher behind the study, says women have written to her saying the findings matched their own experience at work. Some told her they had wondered whether they were to blame for hostility.