Gregariousness, Interactive Jobs and Wages

Gregariousness is an important aspect of human life with implications also for labour markets. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to examine gregariousness and social interaction at the workplace and associated wages for Germany. Our empirical findings with samples from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) demonstrate that extravert people more often work in jobs with more social interaction. Furthermore, females tend to work more often in interactive jobs compared to males. There is evidence that gregariousness and social interaction are associated with (moderately) higher wages, except when high interaction occurs in large firms.

Pfeiffer, Friedhelm and Nico Johannes Schulz (2012), Gregariousness, Interactive Jobs and Wages, Journal of Labor Market Research 45 (2) , 147-159