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    • Dr Amy Irwin
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Rude behaviour at work can encompass many behaviours, from ignoring a colleague, to making disparaging comments, to interrupting someone during a meeting. These behaviours may seem quite mild, but the effects can be far reaching and have been linked to: employee burnout, increased stress, increased quitting intention, decreased motivation and feelings of isolation and anxiety. It’s important to understand more about rude behaviours, the factors that influence behaviours and how best people can cope with rudeness in the workplace. This knowledge can then be used to reduce the impact of rudeness and help support the victims of rudeness.

We are particularly interested in conducting research to explore the impact of context (e.g. a meeting versus a lecture) on perception of rudeness, the skills victims use to cope with rudeness and the potential influence of individual differences on the perception and experience of rudeness. Our research to date has primarily examined rudeness within academia and mental health settings.

Part and parcel

We conducted an interview study with mental health practitioners to learn more about the experience of rudeness in that context, along with the coping strategies that are used.
Paper

Location. Location? Location!

This two-stage study explores the impact of status and context on the perception of rudeness within academia.
Paper

Rudeness in academia

This study explored faculty perception of rudeness, including an analysis of responses to rude emails.
Paper

WonkHE

This article for WonkHe discusses tackling rudeness in Higher Education on the basis of our 'Location' paper
Article
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  • Dr Amy Irwin

  • Dr Ceri Trevethan

  • Prof Rhona Flin

  • Oliver Hamlet

  • Gabi Lipan

  • Ilinca Ruxandra Tone

  • Anna Kaminska

  • Nejc Sedlar

  • Academic associates

  • Industrial and Clinical associates

  • University of Aberdeen
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  • Research Home
The Applied Psychology and Human Factors Group | The University of Aberdeen