Four sociologists – all women – conducted an experiment. Between them, they refused more than 100 job applications for almost a year and observed the consequences before publishing their results in the prestigious scientific journal Nature in 2022. Two years later, when they set themselves a new challenge, the Financial Times looks at their findings.
They listed in an Excel spreadsheet the requests they declined (conference participation, writing an article, administrative task, etc.), the reasons and their feelings after each refusal, and they realized that they had no regrets about saying no. In total, it took them ten months to reach their goal of 100 refusals, but the number of proposals accepted remained higher.
“First, tracking your work makes it easier to say no, partly because you have a better sense of what you’re doing. Also, a firm no is better than a soft no or a partial no, because agreeing to, say, give a talk in the coming months or edit a paper instead of co-authoring it invariably leads to more significant demands later on,” sums up the British daily.
Furthermore, when studying a proposal, we can ask ourselves the question of its relevance in relation to our work, the desire we have to respond to it, the time it will require and that we will not use to serve other commitments.
Another lesson learned from this experience: each time they refused, the researchers felt guilty and feared that they were missing out. However, these fears proved unfounded since the refusals did not damage their professional relationships.
AR Siders is an associate professor at the University of Delaware’s Center for Disaster Research and is one of four researchers on this study. Contacted by the Financial Times, She explained that the team had set itself a new challenge: “We are now trying to count 100 refusals each in the year ending December 2024, so together we should say no to 400 requests.” She also modulates commitments by accepting fewer major requests that could affect the quality of the rest of her work. In short, she says no more often and to larger requests.
[…] - Courrier international
