Gossip – is it good for you?

(Author’s note: this topic has been near the top of my list for months, but it wasn’t until Roe called me out that I knew it was time to write it.  We were driving back from Durham, NC when I explained that my next topic had to do with gossip.  I told Roe that, from my vantage point, most people think of gossip in a negative light, to which Roe quickly (and accurately) responded: “Well, YOU certainly do.”  Point taken).

Few would argue (who's with me on this?) that gossip has a negative side.  Gossip is often seen as hurtful, immoral, unproductive and, at times, downright mean.  But there is another side.  In two unrelated studies researchers proved what will now seem obvious – that gossip increases fairness, holds selfishness in check and helps us figure out who to befriend and who to avoid (a key survival tool).

Fairness/Selfishness

Researchers Bianca Beersma and Gerben Van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam conducted a series of studies to see if the threat of gossip would suppress selfish behavior, and, sure enough, the results were striking.  Participants were asked to distribute 100 tickets for a cash-prize lottery, and they were free to decide how to distribute the tickets (that is, they could keep more for themselves or distribute more to the group). In the first round of experiments, participants were told that their choices would be kept totally private.  But in the next round of experiments, they were told that the group was either prone to, or unlikely to, gossip about each other's choices. No surprise here.  In every instance, people became substantially less selfish when they knew they might be talked about.  The authors explained: “When the threat of gossip exists, group members can expect that they will be talked about if they decide to take a free ride.” The authors conclude: “. . . gossip is a powerful tool to control self-serving behavior in groups.  Indeed the grapevine keeps group members in line. Although mostly viewed negatively, gossip may be essential for groups’ survival.”

Gossip as a evolutionary survival tool

Paying attention to gossip may indeed be linked to longevity/survival, according to Northeastern University researchers who found that our visual system is trained – beyond conscious awareness – to remember individuals who are associated with negative gossip. In a fascinating series of experiments using a stereoscope (where two images compete for the brain’s attention), participants were presented with faces linked to positive, neutral or negative gossip (examples: helped an elderly woman with her groceries, passed a man on a street, threw a chair at his classmate).  As you might suspect, faces paired with negative gossip were dominant. And just to make certain that the brain wasn’t simply attending to the negative gossip, the researchers controlled for that variable.  Same result.    

From a survival perspective it’s easy to understand that our brain might be wired, beyond our awareness, to quickly identify people associated with negative gossip.  In an article authored by Christian Jarrett for BPS Research Digest, the Northeastern researchers were quoted as saying: “Our results . . .  [show] that top-down affective information acquired through gossip influences vision . . . so that what we know about someone influences not only how we feel and think about them, but also whether or not we see them in the first place.” Jarrett opined: “The finding lends scientific credence to the established PR wisdom that for entertainers vying for the spotlight, there's no such thing as bad press.”