Gender Differences in Gossip and Friendship

Gossip has been related to friendship as it can increase the bond between people and sense of belonging to a group. However, the role of gender in the relationship between gossip and friendship has not been examined in the literature. So, the present study examined gender differences in the relationship between friendship quality and gossip tendency with a sample of 167 female and 69 male Western Canadian undergraduate University students using the Friendship questionnaire and the Tendency to Gossip questionnaire. Given gender differences in friendship, with males being more agentic and females more communal, the relationship between gossip and friendship was predicted to be stronger in the males compared to the females. Friendship quality was positively correlated with gossip tendency in the males, but this effect was not present with the females. The information gossip scale was strongly associated with male friendship quality. This finding may be related to the greater emphasis on status with males, and that possession of knowledge and control of information is a method of attaining status. Physical appearance gossip was found to be more prevalent in females, but not related to friendship quality. This type of gossip may be a more of a competitive threat to the relationship in females. Achievement related gossip was also related to male friendship quality, which reflects the greater emphasis on individuation in male friendships.     

Do We Gossip for Moral Reasons? The Intersection of Moral Foundations and Gossip

Gossip is comprised of evaluative talk about absent others. Although such evaluations may be moral or non-moral, moral judgments often precede the transmission of gossip. This work explored the salience of moral and non-moral motivations to transmit gossip-like information. Two studies explored the relationships between the general tendency to gossip, transmission of, and interest in gossip, five moral foundations (Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, Purity/sanctity), their sacredness in relational contexts, and moral and non-moral motives to gossip. Results from Studies 1 (negative gossip - infidelity) and 2 (positive gossip - fidelity) indicated that moral motives to gossip were more important than non-moral motives. The contribution of morality in perpetuating gossip was discussed.     

Why People Gossip: An Empirical Analysis of Social Motives,Antecedents, and Consequences

In 3 studies with student samples, we advance a social‐motivational approach to gossip. We developed the Motives to Gossip Questionnaire to distinguish negative influence, information gathering and validation, social enjoyment, and group protection as motives underlying gossip. Study 1 demonstrated that these motives can be distinguished empirically, and that the informational motive was the most prevalent reason to instigate gossip. Study 2 showed that group protection was especially important when the opportunity to gossip with a group member about another member's norm‐violating behavior was salient. Study 3 showed that when participants imagined someone gossiped to them about another group member's norm violation, and ascribed this to group protection, they rated the gossip as social and did not disapprove of it.     

Gossip in same-gender and cross-gender friends' conversations

Gossip initiations and listener responses were examined in conversations between 25 female-female, 19 male-male and 24 female-male pairs of friends. Participants were 18 to 21 years of age (mean age = 19) and had known one another at least 2 months (mean length = 24 months). Transcribed tape recordings of 5–minute unstructured conversations were analyzed for gossip initiations (evalutive comments about a familiar third person) and gossip responses (discouraging, neutral, mildly encouraging, moderately encouraging, highly encouraging). Overall, encouraging responses were more likely than discouraging or neutral responses. Group differences were also observed. Negative gossip was more likely to occur between female pairs than between male pairs or cross-gender pairs. Also, among female pairs only, negative gossip was more likely than positive gossip. Furthermore, the female pairs tended to respond to evaluative gossip with highly encouraging comments. There were no gender differences within the cross-gender pairs associated with any behaviors. The findings suggest that women may be more likely than men to use and encourage gossip in same-gender friendships in order to establish solidarity and make social comparisons.     

Deterrence and transmission as mechanisms ensuring reliability of gossip

Spreading information about the members of one’s group is one of the most universal human behaviors. Thanks to gossip, individuals can acquire the information about their peers without sustaining the burden of costly interactions with cheaters, but they can also create and revise social bonds. Gossip has also several positive functions at the group level, promoting cohesion and norm compliance. However, gossip can be unreliable, and can be used to damage others’ reputation or to circulate false information, thus becoming detrimental to people involved and useless for the group. In this work, we propose a theoretical model in which reliability of gossip depends on the joint functioning of two distinct mechanisms. Thanks to the first, i.e., deterrence, individuals tend to avoid informational cheating because they fear punishment and the disruption of social bonds. On the other hand, transmission provides humans with the opportunity of reducing the consequences of cheating through a manipulation of the source of gossip.     

Deterrence and transmission as mechanisms ensuring reliability of gossip

Spreading information about the members of one's group is one of the most universal human behaviors. Thanks to gossip, individuals can acquire the information about their peers without sustaining the burden of costly interactions with cheaters, but they can also create and revise social bonds. Gossip has also several positive functions at the group level, promoting cohesion and norm compliance. However, gossip can be unreliable, and can be used to damage others' reputation or to circulate false information, thus becoming detrimental to people involved and useless for the group. In this work, we propose a theoretical model in which reliability of gossip depends on the joint functioning of two distinct mechanisms. Thanks to the first, i.e., deterrence, individuals tend to avoid informational cheating because they fear punishment and the disruption of social bonds. On the other hand, transmission provides humans with the opportunity of reducing the consequences of cheating through a manipulation of the source of gossip.     

Gossip and counselling: The tendency to gossip and its relation to vocational interests

In this study we attempted to treat gossip as a psychological disposition related to vocational interests, using a newly developed instrument, the Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire (TGQ). One hundred and twenty Israeli students (58 females, 62 males) at the Haifa Technion and the University of Haifa were administered the TGQ together with the Social Desirability Scale and the Ramak-Vocational Interests Questionnaire. We found that: (a) women tended to report that they gossiped more than men did, but this difference was confined to one specific content area of gossip only; and (b) interest in people-oriented professions was related to the tendency to gossip even when social desirability and gender were controlled for statistically. The last finding supports the ‘spillover’ hypothesis (Staines, 1980) on the relationship between vocational and avocational interests. The positive relationship between the tendency to gossip and an interest in people-oriented professions might mean that both derive from the same basic needs. We suggest that counselling and psychotherapy can be regarded as sublimated forms of gossip. It is our hope that the TGQ may be of help in expanding our knowledge about the relationship between the tendency to gossip and other psychological dispositions.

This paper attempts to examine the relationship between Existential thought & Client Centred approach to counselling. This task is undertaken by means of an examination of both the similarities and differences between the two fields, as well as relevant research. The paper draws upon thinking of major writers in the fields under consideration, and in doing so looks at such themes as meaning and existence, such concepts as philosophy and technique in psychotherapy and counselling and characteristics of the therapist and the counselling process.     

Using diaries to explore the characteristics of work‐related gossip: Methodological considerations from exploratory multimethod research

This paper examines the methodological considerations of diary methods, as used in exploratory multimethod research into the characteristics and function of gossip in nursing and health care organizations. There has, in the past, been a dearth of empirical research into the nature and role of gossip in organizations. Gossip is a disparate phenomenon, difficult to define, conceptually complex and resistant to paradigmatic summing up. However, research agendas are emerging in relation to gossip as both a social phenomenon, and also as an important aspect of organizational communication. This paper contributes to this emerging literature, arguing that diary methods offer a solution to the problems of researching the often private, unseen and unheard worlds of gossip in organizations. It is also argued that diary methods alone are insufficient, and that eclectic, multimethod research designs are necessary in order to manage the challenges associated with capturing and preserving the elusive nature of gossip.     

以“八卦”为途径的声誉传播及其对合作行为的影响

声誉是人类的合作行为产生和维持的基石,但由于人与人之间的互动所提供的声誉信息有限,如何准确有效地传播声誉成为促进合作的另一个难题。因此,研究者们提出“八卦”可能是声誉传播的重要途径之一。作为一种间接的传播方式,“八卦”如何促进人类合作？其是否是一种准确有效的声誉传播途径？本文从八卦信息的传播者、接收者和八卦对象的角度对以上的问题进行了论述。在合作情景中,传播者乐意对他人的声誉信息进行传播,特别是背叛者的声誉信息,以帮助潜在的受害者;信息的接收者认可传递声誉信息的八卦,并且利用八卦信息辨别合作者,决定与八卦对象的合作行为;八卦同样能够有效地威慑八卦对象,促使八卦对象表现出更高的合作水平。未来的研究应该关注传播者的互惠动机、接收者对信息的主动寻求以及实际发生的八卦对八卦对象的影响,并开展声誉传播的神经机制研究。     

An epistemological analysis of gossip and gossip-based knowledge

Gossip has been the object of a number of different studies in the past 50 years, rehabilitating it not only as something worth being studied, but also as a pivotal informational and social structure of human cognition: Dunbar (Rev Gen Psychol 8(2):100–110, 2004) interestingly linked the emergence of language to nothing less than its ability to afford gossip. Different facets of gossip were analyzed by anthropologists, linguists, psychologists and philosophers, but few attempts were made to frame gossip within an epistemological framework (for instance Ayim in (Good gossip, pp. 85–99, 1994)). Our intention in this paper is to provide a consistent epistemological (applied and social) account of gossip, understood as broadly evaluative talk between two or more people, comfortably acquainted between each other, about an absent third party they are both at least acquainted with. Hence, relying on the most recent multidisciplinary literature about the topic, the first part of this paper will concern the epistemic dynamics of gossip: whereas the sociobiological tradition individuates in gossip the clue for the (theoretically cumbersome) group mind and group-level adaptations Wilson et al. (The evolution of cognition, pp. 347–365, 2002), we will suggest the more parsimonious modeling of gossip as a soft-assembled epistemic synergy, understood as a function-dominant interaction able to project a higher organizational level—in our case, the group as group-of-gossips. We will argue that the aim of this synergy is indeed to update a Knowledge Base of social information between the group (as a projected whole) and its members. The second and third part will instead focus on the epistemological labeling of the inferences characterizing gossip: our contention is that the ever-present moral/evaluative dimension in gossip—be it tacit or explicit, concerning the objects or the partners of gossip—is best analyzed through the epistemological framework of abduction. Consequently, we will suggest that a significant role of gossip is to function as a group-based abductive appraisal of social matter, enacted at various levels.     

传言对人际信任影响的泛化效应

本研究使用学习-测试范式考察传言对人际信任影响的泛化效应。学习阶段,被试对中性面孔和不同效价的传言或真实信息进行配对学习;测试阶段,被试作为投资者与陌生对家完成信任投资游戏,对家面孔与学习面孔具有40%相似性。结果发现,传言能够影响学习面孔的信任,并调节与学习面孔相似的对家面孔的信任投资;同时,传言对信任投资的影响只发生在女性对家身上。上述发现揭示传言对人际信任能够进行选择性泛化。     

How do Children Evaluate the Gossiper of Negative Gossip?

In this study, we investigated how children evaluate gossipers. There are two conflicting ways in which children evaluate the gossiper of negative gossip about another person. One is that they perceive the gossiper of negative gossip as bad because saying something negative about another person can be seen as indirect aggression. The other is that they perceive the gossiper of negative gossip as good because such gossip is beneficial to regulate their relationship with the gossip's target. To address the issue, we asked 7- and 8-year-olds to choose the gossiper of negative gossip or the gossiper of neutral gossip as a cooperative partner and to distribute resources between the gossipers. We found that the children often did not choose the gossiper of negative gossip as a partner and did not distribute many resources to her, indicating a perception of the negative gossiper as bad. This suggests that children's evaluation of a gossiper is influenced by the valence of gossip rather than the value of gossip.     

Of Tabloids and Family Secrets: The Evolutionary Psychology of Gossip1

Two experiments tested hypotheses about gossip derived from an evolutionary perspective. In the first experiment, 128 people ranging in age from 17 to 62 years ranked the interest value of 12 tabloid stories about celebrities differing in age and gender. In the second experiment, 83 college students ranked the interest value and likelihood of spreading gossip about male or female professors, relatives, friends, acquaintances, or strangers based on 12 different gossip scenarios. The results of these experiments confirmed a consistent pattern of interest in gossip marked by a preference for information about others of the same age and gender. Exploitable information in the form of damaging, negative news about nonallies and positive news about allies was especially prized and likely to be passed on. The findings confirm that gossip can serve as a strategy of status enhancement and function in the interests of individuals, and that it does not just function as a means of social control within groups.     

What an Understanding of the Dynamics of Gossip Has to Teach About Group Dynamics and Group Leadership

Abstract

Although what transpires in group therapy is not gossip per se–except perhaps when absent or former members are discussed–listening to group interaction through an understanding of the dynamics of gossip can contribute to a greater appreciation of group dynamics and group leadership as well as enlarge therapeutic space. After examining the interpersonal dynamics of gossip, this paper discusses six ways in which an understanding of these dynamics can inform group leadership and shed light on group psychotherapy. Central features of gossip that appear in group interactions are explored: These include projection, displacement, self-esteem regulation, clarification of motivation, unself-consciousness, social comparison and bonding, avoidance of psychic pain, and making the ego-syntonic dystonic. The lively use of imagination in the mature phase of group therapy is conceived of as the time when the darker side of human nature–imagined gossip harnessed for therapeutic purposes–can be welcomed in and processed in a kind, playful, and compassionate manner.     

职场负面八卦对科技人员创造力的影响机制研究

以职场“冷”暴力理论为切入点,采用层级回归和拔靴法对327份样本数据进行分析验证了职场负面八卦对科技人员创造力的影响机制。结论：职场负面八卦对科技人员的创造力有显著的抑制作用,人际信任在上述关系中起到中介作用;情绪智力在调节职场负面八卦和人际信任之间关系的同时,也调节了人际信任的中介作用,而且当科技人员的情绪智力水平较低时,人际信任的中介作用更为显著。     

Rumors And Gossip As Forms Of Bullying: Sticks And Stones?

When most people hear the word bullying, they often envision a physical form of aggression—often between schoolchildren. And yet, much of the bullying and other forms of relational aggression occur not only in the schoolyard, but among those schoolchildren's parents, as well as in boardrooms, in faculty lounges, and in other places where adults congregate. The transmission of rumor and gossip is an enduring feature of power dynamics in any small or large group, as both a way of trying to make sense of ambiguous situations and as a form of social control. This article examines the construction, maintenance, proliferation, and management of rumors, gossip, and hearsay from a psychoanalytic perspective.     

Gossip and the Self

The relationship between self‐reported gossip, evaluative conversation about other people, and the self was examined with 243 university students completing questionnaires measuring gossip from 2 theoretical viewpoints: as an individual‐difference characteristic, or as having social functions. The self was examined using several perspectives: self‐concept clarity, self‐efficacy, locus of control, and self‐monitoring. Using structural equation modeling, gossip was related to external locus of control, high‐self‐monitoring, low self‐concept clarity, and low self‐efficacy. The final model is that high self‐monitoring and locus of control mediate the relationship between self‐clarity/efficacy and gossip. The study demonstrates the important role of self‐monitoring and locus of control in gossip and that negative gossip may be associated with a more externalized, unclear sense of self.     

Let’s Talk About Sex: A Study on the Recall of Gossip About Potential Mates and Sexual Rivals

Although there is an abundance of gossip research, little is known about the impact of individuals’ characteristics and their ability to recall gossip’s content. We concentrated on gossip related to mating reputation, and investigated the effects of individuals’ sex and relationship status when they are the subjects and receivers of such gossip. We presented 84 students with gossip-like stories, manipulated for content, and then provided a surprise recall test. We found that cues of attractiveness were recalled more for female characters, whereas cues of wealth status were recalled more for male characters. Gender differences in participants’ recall occurred for gossip about same-sex people who may represent rivals, but not for gossip about other-sex people who may represent potential mates. The relationship status of the subjects and receivers did not affect the recall rates. We discuss these findings within the conceptual framework offered by evolutionary psychology.