Women who express anger lose influence over their peers while men who express themselves similarly gain sway, new research claims.

The Arizona State University study, published in the journal Law and Human Behaviour, examined 210 participants’ interactions in a computer simulation of a jury.

Each person, who believed they were speaking to five other individuals, was asked to deliver a verdict at the beginning and end of the experiment. They had their verdict challenged by a scripted character, who was given either an obviously male or female name.

"We found that when men expressed their opinion with anger, participants rated them as more credible, which made them less confident in their own opinion,” Jessica Salerno, co-author of the study said.

“But when women expressed identical arguments and anger, they were perceived as more emotional, which made participants more confident in their own opinion."

Ms Salerno said both men and women reacted in the same way to women expressing themselves angrily.

"Participants confidence in their own verdict dropped significantly after male holdouts expressed anger," the paper’s findings stated.