Psstt! I don't Gossip🙄

Author: Olumide Fasan

Everybody gossips. It's okay if we would want to believe that our daily conversations are strictly productive idea exchanges and debates about life’s unanswered questions. However, in reality, we all talk about other people.

A study published recently in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science reveals that the typical person spends about 52 minutes per day gossiping. The amazement, though, is that a lot of people aren’t walking around whispering “words” in their coworkers’ ears. Instead, they’re just sharing information about the people in their lives with those around them.

Gossip is simply talking about an absent person. It is usually about something we can make a moral judgment about - we tend to approve of the information or disapprove, and it’s entertaining. It is not necessarily about spreading malicious rumours or embarrassing stories, just sharing information.

According to Megan Robbins, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, “Gossip is just social information and we learn a lot about the social world around us when we gossip." It is about communicating information about the world we live in and most of us do it.

Professor Robb Willer, who studies the social forces that bring us together and drive us against one another, research showed that gossip has both positive effects good and it can help maintain social order. He explained that a lot of gossips is driven by concern for others. This type of gossip is “prosocial gossip” because it serves to warn others — which has the effect of lowering overall exploitation in groups.

However, this doesn't refute the fact that gossip can be done out of revenge or hatred. Gossips drawn from selfish interests have a negative influence on the person talked about. A bad gossiper is someone who shares information about others to get ahead or get an advantage themselves, or just plain recklessly. 

Gossips have an influence on everyone - from the person sharing them, to the people listening and also the person they are talking about. People often exaggerate what they pass on to make a better or more coherent story — or to justify why they are speaking about someone. This very fact is one thing people should look into while trying to share gossip.

To wit, the light side of gossip can bring people together. The dark side of gossip can cut people off with knife-like precision. However, the psychological reason we do engage in it at all is to reinforce our cultural values…which, largely, end up being neutral.

Hey, do you gossip?😉