Chances are most of us have already found ourselves in a situation in which we’ve had a superior yell and belittle us whatever the reason, meaning, regardless of whether we did something wrong or not. Until not long ago, researchers believed bully bosses were so aggressive because they wanted to hold on to their position of power no matter the cost. A recent study, though, comes to show that self-perceived incompetence and aggressiveness actually go hand in hand, as E! Science News points out.

Bosses tend to bully employees not because they firmly believe no other method could work to boost productivity, or because this is their way of marking their territory, researchers have learned. Bosses bully their employees because they see themselves as incompetent, and perhaps not even able to math the employees’ performances, for which reason they feel the need to be constantly putting them down, the aforementioned publication says, citing the findings of the study.

“During role-playing sessions, study participants who felt their egos were under threat would go so far as to needlessly sabotage an underling's chances of winning money. In another test, participants who felt inadequate would request that a subordinate who gave a wrong answer to a test be notified by a loud obnoxious horn, even though they had the option of choosing silence or a quiet sound.” E! Science News writes.

Incompetence alone is not enough to lead to aggression and outbursts of this type, the study has also revealed. It’s the combination of a sense of incompetence and a position of power that ultimately makes a person lash out against those whom s/he outranks, but considers better in terms of achievements. In such a scenario, flattery is the last thing employees should resort to to calm down the angry boss, since it might eventually lead to breaking all ties with the real world.

“By showing when and why power leads to aggression, these findings are highly relevant as abusive supervision is such a pervasive problem in society. […] It is both interesting and ironic to note that such flattery, although perhaps affirming to the ego, may contribute to the incompetent power holder’s ultimate demise – by causing the power holder to lose touch with reality.” Nathanael Fast, assistant professor of management and organization at USC and lead author of the study, says, as cited by E! Science News.