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Gossip. All humans partake in some form, despite the age-old adage, \u201cIf you have nothing nice to say, don\u2019t say anything at all.\u201d Whether it\u2019s workplace chatter, the sharing of family news, or group texts between friends, it\u2019s inevitable that everyone who talks, well, talks about other people. In fact, a 1993 observational study found that male participants spent 55% of conversation time and female participants spent 67% conversation time on \u201cthe discussion of socially relevant topics.\u201d<\/p>\n
People tend to think of gossip as synonymous with malicious rumors, put-downs, or the breathless propagation of a tabloid scoop. But researchers often define it more broadly: as \u201ctalking about people who aren\u2019t present,\u201d says Megan Robbins, an assistant professor of psychology at The University of California, Riverside. \u201cIt\u2019s something that comes very naturally to us\u201d \u2014 an integral part of the conversation, information sharing, and even community building.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily negative,\u201d adds David Ludden, professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College and the author of\u00a0The Psychology of Language: An Integrated Approach. \u201cIt can be positive or neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 2019 meta-analysis published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, Robbins and a colleague found that of the 52 minutes a day on average the 467 subjects spent gossiping, three-quarters of that gossip was actually neutral. One subject, for example, spoke about someone who was watching a lot of movies to stay current. \u201cIt was kind of boring,\u201d Robbins says, \u201cnot salacious and negative\u201d at all.<\/p>\n
Just a small portion of the conversations analyzed \u2014 around 15% \u2014 was deemed negative gossip (though positive gossip amounted to a smaller portion still, at only 9%). So while it is true that people can spend a significant amount of time talking about their peers, oftentimes that chatter is benign.<\/p>\n
Why do people gossip?
\nSome researchers argue that gossip helped our ancestors survive. Evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar first pioneered this idea, comparing gossip to the grooming primates engage in as a means of bonding. Instead of picking fleas and dirt off one another to bond, Ludden explains, we now talk, which is \u201cwhere gossip comes in, because chit-chat is mostly talking about other people and conveying social information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gossiping, Dunbar\u2019s\u00a0work\u00a0argues, gives humans the ability to spread valuable information to very large social networks. \u201cWere we not able to engage in discussions of these [social and personal] issues, we would not be able to sustain the kinds of societies that we do,\u201d she explained in a 2003 paper published in the\u00a0Review of General Psychology. \u201cGossip in this broad sense plays a number of different roles in the maintenance of socially functional groups through time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are much more social [than our evolutionary forbearers],\u201d says Ludden, \u201cso it can be very helpful to get information about people [from others] when this network is too big to observe by ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some scholars view\u00a0gossip as evidence of cultural learning, offering teachable moments and providing people examples of what\u2019s socially acceptable \u2014 and what\u2019s not. For example, if there\u2019s someone who cheats a lot in a community or social circle and people start to talk about that person in a negative way, says Robbins, the collective criticism should warn others of the consequences of cheating. And as word near-inevitably trickles back to source of said gossip, it can \u201cserve to keep people in check, morally speaking,\u201d Robbins adds.<\/p>\n
What happens physiologically when people gossip?
\nIn a\u00a02015 study\u00a0published in\u00a0Social Neuroscience,\u00a0scientists looked at brain imaging of men and women as they heard positive and negative gossip about themselves, their best friends and celebrities. People hearing gossip \u2014 good and bad \u2014 about themselves, as well as negative gossip in general, showed more activity in the prefrontal cortex of their brains, which is key to our ability to navigate complex social behaviors.<\/p>\n
This activity indicated the subjects responded to the gossip and its insight. The authors say this is related to our desire to be seen positively by others and fit in socially, regardless of whether this reflects what we\u2019re actually feeling.<\/p>\n
The study also found that the caudate nucleus, a reward center in the brain, was activated in response to negative gossip about celebrities; subjects seemed to be amused or entertained by salacious celebrity scandals. (The researchers also polled how the subjects\u00a0felt, in addition to studying what their brain images revealed. Not surprisingly, they were happier to hear\u00a0positive gossip about themselves, and more irked by hearing negative gossip about themselves as opposed to hearing gossip about others.)<\/p>\n
So, can gossip be good for you?
\n\u201cPeople are really resistant to thinking about gossip as anything but bad behavior,\u201d says Robbins. And Feinberg notes that there are some types of gossip that should be avoided, such as gossip that is purely harmful and serves no greater purpose \u2014 like mean comments about someone\u2019s looks.<\/p>\n
In such a scenario, \u201cyou\u2019re not learning anything,\u201d Robbins adds. \u201cNo one is benefiting.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a physiological distinction to be drawn between active and passive participation in gossip. Matthew Feinberg, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the University of Toronto\u2019s Rotman School of Management, and his colleagues explored this in a\u00a02012 study\u00a0published in the\u00a0Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.\u00a0When subjects heard about another person\u2019s anti-social behavior or an injustice, their heart rates increased. When they were able to actively gossip about the person, or the situation, on the other hand, it soothed them and brought their heart rates down. The\u00a0act\u00a0of gossiping, Feinberg explains, \u201chelps calm the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, Feinberg\u2019s research has shown that gossip can promote cooperation by spreading important information. \u201cWhen people say \u2018your reputation precedes you,\u2019 it\u2019s because they have heard gossip about that person,\u201d he says, which \u201ccan be extremely useful.\u201d That said, disseminating or not correcting gossip you know to be untrue doesn\u2019t have any pro-social benefit.<\/p>\n
In another of Feinberg\u2019s studies, a group of participants identified members who behaved selfishly via gossip and promptly kicked them out. In the study, participants were divided into subgroups, and then each person was given a number of points representing small sums of money. Each participant could contribute these points to their group \u2014 in which case, the points would be doubled and redistributed equally \u2014 or keep them for themselves. Armed with the knowledge of their peers\u2019 decisions, participants then played the game over again in different groupings. Crucially, they could inform their new groups how much someone had contributed in earlier exercises and could vote to exclude someone who had behaved selfishly from around entirely.<\/p>\n
Having eliminated those bad apples, remaining participants were then able to work more harmoniously and inflate their collective pot. Individuals who had given less than half their points initially increased their contributions by the end of the latter rounds, while those who had been excluded gave significantly more after they were allowed back into the game, conforming to the less selfish behavior.<\/p>\n
Gossiping also says something about the relationships people have with each other. \u201cIn order to gossip, you need to feel close to people,\u201d says Stacy Torres, assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, San Francisco,\u00a0who has studied gossip in older adults. \u201cThere\u2019s an intimacy\u201d to sharing experiences and feeling like you\u2019re on the same page about others, she points out. Torres\u2019 research has found that gossip can\u00a0stave off loneliness, while other studies have found it can facilitate\u00a0bonding and closeness\u00a0and serve as a\u00a0form of entertainment.<\/p>\n
So, keep on talking. And when your conversation turns to gossip, as it inevitably will, remember that\u00a0some\u00a0good can come of it \u2014 with the right intentions, of course.<\/p>\n
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