To achieve success — as both individuals and as a society — we often have to be good team players. But who is best at "playing ball?" Should you be nice to people, or should you act with intent? What kind of people are most likely to succeed?
group of people at work
Should you act nice or smart to succeed? A new study may hold the answer.
Going to a job interview, you may have heard that many employers tend to look beyond an employee's skills to what kind of person they are.

They might covertly ask, "Will this person fit our team spirit?" Naturally nice and accommodating people may leave a good first impression, with open smiles and instinctive dislike of conflict.

But will just "being nice" serve us just as well in the long run?

Turns out, there may be some truth behind the notion that "nice guys finish last." This is not to say that you shouldn't aim to be collaborative — it's just that it's a little more complicated than just "be nice and you'll do well."

At least, that's what researchers from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and the University of Heidelberg in Germany say.

"We wanted to explore what factors make us effective social animals. In other words, what enables us to behave optimally in situations when cooperation is potentially beneficial not only to us, but to our neighbors, people in the same country, or who share the same planet," explains Prof. Eugenio Proto, co-author of a recent study asking what makes us successful team players.

In a paper published in the Journal of Political Economy, Prof. Proto and colleagues explain that we may need more than just a generous nature to thrive in a social context.

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