Under The Angsana Tree: 8 Types of Toxic People Who Will Rob You of Your Happiness

Just how terribly destructive can spending time with toxic people be? Science offers a few clues (and they're all disturbing).

First, psychological research shows that criticism and insults are five times more powerful than compliments. That means if you want to keep your marriage flourishing, for instance, you need to have five positive interactions to make up for every negative one.

And what's true in relationships is true at work too. Jerks, sadly, have more impact than superstars. When Harvard Business School professors calculated the cost of hiring a toxic employee versus the value of hiring a superstar, they found that adding a jerk to your team will actually cost you twice as much as hiring one A-player will earn you.

Taken together, the evidence shows that even minimal interaction with negative people can have an outsized impact on your performance and happiness. So what should you do about it? If a helpful thread on question-and-answer site Quora is anything to go by, the answer is simple: just avoid these types of energy-sucking, toxic people like the plague.

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