Hate your boss? Stab a voodoo doll, say scientists

Stabbing a voodoo doll, which represents your nightmare manager, could give you a huge sense of justice. Photo / Getty Images

Being shouted at by your boss can drive you to the brink of stupidity.

But scientists have bizarrely claimed that stabbing a voodoo doll, which represents your nightmare manager, could be the answer, reports The Daily Mail.

Giving upset employees the opportunity to hurt the doll using pins, pliers and fire gives them a sense of justice, two studies concluded.

Nearly 400 participants were involved in the studies, with 195 employees lured to take part in the first study with the promise of a $1.

Volunteers were placed into two groups, depending on whether or not they would retaliate to abusive behaviour.

A control group was also studied by the University of Waterloo-led experts - but they were just asked to solve word fragment challenges instead.

The voodoo doll participants were all asked to recall a time when they were abused by their boss in their career, such as being yelled at.

Half visited a website with an interactive voodoo doll and were asked to mark it with their boss' initials and harm it using pins, pliers and fire.

The others were shown a screenshot of the doll, which they labelled as 'nobody', and were asked to trace the outline of it using their cursor.

Perceptions of justice were then assessed in the volunteers through five "ostensibly unrelated" word puzzles.

It showed those who were given the chance to retaliate, by attacking the voodoo doll, had a significantly higher sense of justice.

The study, published in the scientific journal The Leadership Quarterly, was then repeated on 150 students.

Analysis of results showed students felt justice when they harmed the voodoo doll after recalling abuse.

However, in a neutral condition - which was just tested in the second study, no significance was noted in feelings of justice.

The study comes a week after separate research suggested employees who thrive under abusive bosses may actually be psychopaths.

WHAT ARE THE TRAITS OF A BAD BOSS?

Bad bosses generally come in two forms – dysfunctional, and dark, according to researchers from Binghampton University, State University of New York.

Dysfunctional bosses don't want to hurt you, but through a lack of skill, or other personality defects, they're not very good at their job, they claimed in a study in December 2016.

Dark bosses have destructive behaviours, and hurt others to elevate themselves.

These bosses are looked at through the three characteristics called the "Dark Triad", which includes Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy.