Male and female leaders who use a confident tone are more likely to be listened to, WSU researchers found. A study shows gender discrimination does not affect participants’ willingness to follow advice, said Shanthi Manian, assistant professor in the WSU School of Economic Sciences. About 1,000 participants were randomly assigned a male or female leader and played a difficult video game while following their leader’s advice to win the game, she said. The participants were given an incentive in the game to follow or not follow the advice from their leader to achieve victory, Manian said. The better the participant’s outcome in the game, the more money they received.