Scientists have studied gossip for decades. That’s not surprising given how ‘normal’ it is in any social group, big or small.

It’s estimated that more than 90 percent of people in workplaces in Western Europe and North Americaindulge in such banter—defined as talking about someone not present. People in modern societies spend about an  hour a day in chin-wagging, one study reports. But investigators are now approaching this element of social life from a new perspective.

In past decades, researchers have focused primarily on the damage wrought by gossiping, and they zeroed in on either the gossip spreader or the target—the person being talked about. But currently they have changed course by looking more at the benefits of gossip and the dynamics of a three-part network that involves a gossiper, a listener and a target. This research is revealing the complex and diverse roles in shaping perceptions of self and others by looking at factors such as basic information, ego enhancement and social segregation within a group.

So what, if anything, can be good about gossip? Whenever someone confides something to you about someone you both know—whether the information is positive, negative or neutral—it brings the two of you closer, creating a social bond. According to one study, it even increases your liking for the spreader of the information. It helps you learn who to trust and who to avoid. It enforces group norms. For example, complaints about a co-worker who regularly leaves their lunch to rot in the fridge get back to them and let them know that doing so is not an office norm.

But gossip is a double-edged sword for each member of this equilateral triangle. Whether that sword aids or causes harm depends on a host of factors, including the relationships among gossiper, listener and target, the motives of each person and the trustworthiness of the imparted info.

The gossiper is the prime mover in this drama. So it’s not surprising that much of the social science research related to gossip has focused on why they do it, what they get out of it and what the attendant dangers are in doing it, if any. In its most benign form gossip creates a sense of connectedness and belonging. On the other hand, if what you’re sharing is injurious to the target, you may feel guilty. You may also feel anxious about repercussions, including retaliation. There’s the further risk that listeners may form unwelcome impressions about you.

Gossipers have been maligned from time immemorial as rumourmongers or talebearers, yet most of what they impart is actually true, research shows. Sociologist Francesca Giardini of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and her colleagues found this to be the case in a lab experiment in which students played a series of ‘public goods’ games. In this type of game, players benefit from monetary contributions that they make to a common pool as long as people behave altruistically, but individual players can choose instead to maximize their payoff by acting in their own self-interest. In the study, four players had the opportunity to earn up to €21 from the experimenters depending on how the participants played. If they contributed to their private account, they got what they put in plus a share of the group pot. Everyone benefited more if they all contributed to that pot because its holdings were multiplied by 1.5.

Over several games, players recognised the behaviour of the others, and they were offered opportunities to confidentially warn other players about someone who didn’t contribute to the group. The experimenters learned that the biggest contributors were, on average, also more willing to pass on gossip, here defined as information about self-interested players, that was truthful.

Another lab experiment conducted by social psychologist Terence Dores Cruz, then at Free University Amsterdam, showed that the gossiper passed on true information when they had no conflict of interest with the target of the gossip. When they had a rivalry or other conflict with the target, however, they were likelier to pass on things that were self-serving or outright false. Like a villain in a melodrama, a gossiper can take down a rival, for instance, by manipulating people’s impressions of them. To figure out the gossiper’s motives, the research advises listeners, “ask yourself: Who gains?”

However…even being friends with anyone else in the gossip triangle affects the information’s truthfulness. For example, a friend of the target may not pass on something negative. In addition, a gossiper may say something positive—but false—about a friend.

Despite complex motivations, humans on average are quite good at sizing up the intentions of others with whom they interact. They usually know the person and their place in the network. One study shows that the determining factor of how people interpret gossip is whether they believe someone is passing on gossip to help out the listener or to benefit themselves. If they perceive it to be the former, they trust the gossiper more.

Gossip can be vital to those who listen to it. Learning that a colleague could be leaving their job, for example, could motivate a listener to take on challenging, promotion-worthy assignments. For someone new to a group, gossip can be invaluable. In any large organisation, there are always smaller cliques, in-groups and out-groups. If you are LGBTQ+, for example, gossip from your co-workers about company events or decisions that people have supported or opposed can inform your own decisions.

There has been little research on how gossip affects people in minority groups, but at least one study suggests that it can be helpful in certain cases. Between 2015 and 2020 investigators interviewed residents of Riace, a town in southern Italy that has hosted a variety of refugees and migrants more than 20 years. They found that much of the local gossip occurred between people of different ethnic groups and promoted strong community relationships. Race was not a factor in that research. A study done in 2016 using similar methods at a historically white South African university, however, found that gossip about Black employees not present at meetings undermined their work performance and morale.

There is a common assumption that being the target of gossip is a bad thing, but this is not always the case. Psychologist Elena Martinescu, then at the University of Groningen, and her colleagues found that targets of positive gossip experienced positive emotions such as pride, but negative gossip was sometimes beneficial by inspiring efforts to repair problematic behaviour. The good side is that you may become more aware of how you’re perceived by others. You may adjust your behaviour accordingly. But, in line with popular perception, if people are bad-mouthing about you, they can harm your reputation, your career prospects and your own mental health.

Most of the studies examined gossip in the workplace, but the actual research was conducted in the laboratory or online. Cruz has conducted one of the few studies of how gossip functions in real-life situations. He recruited more than 300 people in a community in the Netherlands and asked them to list 15 people with whom they had frequent contact. Four times each day for 10 days, the subjects were prompted to report on any information that someone in their social network told them—or that they told someone—about a third person. In this exchange, people passed on evaluations of many aspects of a target—qualities such as trustworthiness, warmth and competence. Listeners overwhelmingly believed the gossip to be true, and they updated their beliefs about the person being discussed and adjusted their behaviour toward them.

One of the most beneficial results of gossip is that it helps people better understand the behaviour of others. For example, Cruz found, someone might complain about a co-worker who shows up late every day, but if they learn through gossip that the offending colleague is in the middle of a divorce or that this person’s young son has cancer, they are less likely to complain. Perhaps more important, they sympathise with the co-worker who is suffering a crisis and feel motivated to be more helpful to them. Overall, Cruz and his colleagues found in their study that most gossip in real life was neither positive nor negative, just newsy: someone became a grandparent; someone got engaged. To avoid biasing their subjects, the investigators never used the term gossip.

Gossip may have a bad name, but science shows it’s often not a bad thing.

Enjoy the Office Christmas Party!

REFERENCES:

Robbins, M. L., & Karan, A. (2020). Who Gossips and How in Everyday Life? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(2), 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619837000

Tianjun Sun, Pauline Schilpzand, Yihao Liu (2023) .Workplace gossip: An integrative review of its antecedents, functions, and consequences. J. Organ. Behav. 44:311-334 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2653

Terence D Dores Cruz et al. (2021). Gossip and reputation in everyday life. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B376:20200301 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0301

Francesca Giardini et al. (2021). Gossip and competitive altruism support cooperation in a Public Good game. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B376:20200303 http://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0303

D. Dores Cruz et al. (2024). Nasty and Noble Notes: Interdependence Structures Drive Self-Serving Gossip. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50(11), 1596-1612. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231171054

Martina Testori et al. Punishing or praising gossipers: How people interpret the motives driving negative gossip shapes its consequences (2024). Social and Personality Psycholoigy Compass Vol 18 (2), e12924. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12924

Carrim, N.M.H. (2019). Minorities’ experiences of office gossip. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde 45(0), a1562. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v45i0.1562

Ester Driel and Maykel Verkuyten (2022). Gossip, diversity and community cohesion: the case of multi-ethnic Riace. Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol. 45, No. 16, 591-613. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2022.2114806

Carrim, N. M. H. (2016). ‘Shh … quiet! Here they come.’ Black employees as targets of office gossip. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 26(2), 180–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2016.1163912

Martinescu et al. (2019) Self-.Evaluative and Other-Directed Emotional and Behavioral Responses to Gossip About the Self. Front. Psychol., Sec. Organizational Psychology, Volume 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02603