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Study: It's detrimental for women to be 'funny' at work

Men's humor was seen as functional and constructive, even smart. People respected it. But jokes from women, however witty they were, were seen as disruptive.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Is it detrimental for women to be "funny" at work? A Harvard study says yes!

There's tons of advice out there from job coaches and TEDxTalk speakers about how injecting humor into a presentation can make the audience more receptive to your message. You seem more likable and relatable, and it reduces stress on employees and ups their motivation if their bosses are lighthearted at times.

But apparently, this doesn't apply to the ladies. The Harvard Business Review just came out with results from a study where they had male and female actors record different versions of the same speech with and without jokes and then having 300 volunteers rate their performance.

They found men's humor is seen as functional and constructive, even smart. People respected it. 

But jokes from women, however witty they were, were seen as disruptive. Harvard says it all comes back to stereotypes. When a woman cracks jokes, she's judged to be less dedicated.

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