Morf, C. C., and Rhodewalt, F. (2001). It was kind of boring, Robbins says, not salacious and negative at all. 8. Curiosity and control: on the determinants of the search for social knowledge. BETSORTE GR N TIKLAYIN! Moreover, to create a concise measure three items were chosen from the respective subscale to represent the social enjoyment motive and the negative influence motive. When we gossipno matter what the motivation or justificationwe behave just like the unbelieving world. In many cases, this is a defensive mechanisma way to seem vulnerable (Ill share a prayer request), while keeping others at arm length (as long as the prayer request is not about me). The questionnaire was conducted with the informed consent of each subject. Gossip isn't. In total, 40 employees from different companies in Germany were addressed. Gossip was shown to be more emotionally salient than non-social . Psychol. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. On average, participants had scores of M = 4.50 (SD = 1.92) on the narcissism subscale, of M = 3.40 (SD = 1.78) on the Machiavellianism subscale, and of M = 2.70 (SD = 1.66) on the psychopathy subscale. Events that are unusual, dramatic, or lasting ensure that a rich representation is formed and are stored in the long-term memory. If knowledge is power, gossip is turbocharged power. Dif. They are, however, highly similar to bivariate correlations displayed in Table 1. As gossip is used by workplace bullies, and, therefore, considered as one aspect of workplace bullying (e.g., Lewis and Gunn, 2007; Crothers et al., 2009; Privitera and Campbell, 2009), the reasons for gossip as well as gossip frequency and valence might also depend on these organizational or occupational features. Resour. Psychol. Of course, talking about other peoples lives isnt always negative, nor is it always gossip; but it can be the gateway to meddling and gossip. A pattern of positive behavior and attitude leads to a positive personality, marked by positive personality traits. Gossip in organizations: contexts, consequences, and controversies. 15. Rev. NIum die abwesende Person in einem schlechten Licht darzustellen. These 5 Strategies Could Help, The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election. In order to display their power and reinforce their egos, people must share the information with other individuals. Social curiosity and gossip: Related but different drives of social functioning. RBum das Vertrauen der Person, mit der ich geredet habe, zu gewinnen. 27, 521531. doi: 10.1108/14777260510615404, Wagenmakers, E. J., Love, J., Marsman, M., Jamil, T., Ly, A., Verhagen, J., et al. Soc. Participants have to consult their autobiographical memory to identify relevant behavioral events, and, in addition, remember in detail the reasons for this behavior (e.g., Sudman et al., 1996). In the work setting, Bayesian linear regression analyses show that all models received support from the data with BF10s varying between BF10 = 2.30 for social enjoyment and BF10 = 122473.60 for relationship building. information, physical appearance, and achievement gossip in . 40, 151192. Pers. Gen. Psychol. Always, bitter-vengeful gossip wishes ill on another person, and is all too happy to add to their pain by passing along any negative report to others. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203891, Djeriouat, H., and Trmolire, B. doi: 10.1089/cpb.2009.0025. B., Neyer, F. J., and van Aken, M. (2013). A good gossiper is someone who people trust with information and someone who uses that information in a responsible way. Focusing on one of these dimensions of gossip might change the evaluation and emphasize the negative reputation of gossip. Second, considering that one focus of the study was the association between the gossip motives and the dark triad personality traits, the use of a short measure of the dark triad is questionable. Natl. Putting this all together, the study paints a rosier picture of gossip and its utility to everyday life than many would imagine. All humans partake in some form, despite the age-old adage, If you have nothing nice to say, dont say anything at all. Whether its workplace chatter, the sharing of family news or group texts between friends, its inevitable that everyone who talks, well, talks about other people. So while it is true that people can spend a significant amount of time talking about their peers, oftentimes that chatter is benign. Psychol. Unpacking evil: claiming the core of the Dark Triad. (2015). You find out your friends ex is cheating on his new partner. In fact, they need to know the latest scoop, because inside information makes this person feel significant, included, and sometimes, even superior. The original version of this story misstated the methodology of research published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science in 2019. Differentiating the Dark Triad within the interpersonal Curcumplex, in Handbook of Interpersonal Psychology: Theory, Research, Assessment and Therapeutic Interventions, eds L. M. Horowitz and S. Strack (New York, NY: Wiley and Sons), 249269. 1. Gossip as social comparison. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00772.x, Williams, K. M., Nathanson, C., and Paulhus, D. L. (2010). Thus, participants filled in the questionnaire twice. The sword of a woman: gossip and female aggression. Bonferroni adjusted post-hoc analysis revealed that information validation (M = 4.68, SD = 1.59), information gathering (M = 3.92, SD = 1.65) as well as negative influence (M = 2.14, SD = 1.26) differed significantly from all other motives (ps < 0.001, respectively). Bull. Ratings were provided on a 9-point rating scale ranging from 1 (disagree strongly) to 9 (agree strongly). Spreading tales about a coworkers sex life, criminal background, suspected company policy infractions, or medical problems are all examples of harmful workplace gossip. a firm . The 2 Most Psychologically Incisive Films of 2022, The Surprising Role of Empathy in Traumatic Bonding. To examine whether the importance of motives differ among each other and between work and private situations, a repeated 6 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted with both motives (i.e., information validation vs. information gathering vs. relationship building vs. protection vs. social enjoyment vs. negative influence) and situation (i.e., private vs. work) as within factors. doi: 10.1016/j.avb.2014.04.006, Mesoudi, A., Whiten, A., and Dunbar, R. (2006). doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.016, Bosson, J. K., Johnson, A. Psychol. Peters, K., and Kashima, Y. Do loose lips sink ships? According to standard procedures, missing values were imputed prior to forming scales using the EM method in SPSS 24 (Schafer and Graham, 2002). No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. More specifically, it is easy to imagine that individuals scoring higher on the dark triad readily use gossip to negatively influence another person's reputation (i.e., potential competitor or rival) to push through self-beneficial agendas. Psychol. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1977.tb01812.x, Swann, W. B., Stephenson, B., and Pittman, T. S. (1981). In accordance with the national and institutional guidelines, ethical approval was not required for this study. They state that its pervasiveness suggests that "sanctions against gossip may be futile and underscores the importance of understanding gossip at a descriptive level." Why are narcissists so charming at first sight? People will ask you for favors in life. The self, in The Handbook of Social Psychology, eds D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, and L. Gardner. Hence, to evaluate whether a certain behavior is good or bad, the underlying reasons or the intentions should be taken into account. 52, 449453. One might speculate that more Machiavellian individuals use gossip more strategically to gain long-term, higher order goals in domains of competition and performance (Jones and Paulhus, 2011). The two cannot coexist. Dif. Philosopher Immanuel Kant believed if everyone lied, nobody would believe anything they were told! Psychol. Welche Motive Fhren zu Gossip und Welche Emotionen Begleiten uns Dabei und Resultieren Daraus? 22, 273288. Hum. Sex, power, and money: prediction from the Dark Triad and Honesty-Humility. In both domains the importance of motives mainly depends on the narcissism of the gossiper whereas psychopathy appears to be irrelevant for gossip motivation. In addition, Feinbergs research has shown that gossip can promote cooperation by spreading important information. An alternative method might be to ask participants to provide information about their tendency to gossip for certain reasons across different situations and across time. The jealous gossip is perhaps the most common gossip. Spreading rumors and gossip is one of the main ways people cut another person's status, especially among girls. IGum Informationen ber die abwesende Person zu sammeln. Trames J. Hum. Social Beings: A Core Motives Aaproach to Social Psychology. What a tangled web we weave: the Dark Triad traits and deception. Psychol. Moreover, research on gossip networks within the work context shows that employees more often tend to gossip positively about colleagues than negatively (Ellwardt et al., 2012a). High-scorers in this attribute are dependable, reliable, organized and self-controlled. Respondents indicate the degree to which they agree on a 7-point scale (1 = trifft berhaupt nicht zu, 7 = trifft voll zu). Gossip in evolutionary perspective. Get the help you need from a therapist near youa FREE service from Psychology Today. Prayer request gossip hurts as much as any other type of gossipmaybe more. Gossiping in order to protect a gossip partner might well go hand in hand with the intention to damage the reputation of the gossip target. After all, theyre just telling the truthor at least, what they think is true. A reciprocal influence model of social power: emerging principles and lines of inquiry. For instance, the data are about 492 times more likely under the model assuming narcissism and information gathering to be associated than under the null model that assumes no association (BF10 = 491.71). People are comfortable in your presence and they see you as someone friendly and approachable. Rev. RBum mich mit der Person, mit der ich geredet habe, gut zu stellen. (2015) also found that the caudate nucleus, the reward center in the brain, activated in response to negative gossip about celebrities, which demonstrates how salacious celebrity scandals pique peoples interest. Though her thoughts and feelings are as impenetrable as the imposing, decaying house in . Also, qualitative research show that people, even though enjoying gossip, restrict themselves because they are afraid of becoming a gossip target themselves (Rodrigues et al., 2019). A bias for social information in human cultural transmission. CyberPsychol. Also, at the group level, a climate of information permeability and norm compliance is generated (e.g., Piazza and Bering, 2008; Feinberg et al., 2012). The role of social. She was speechless. On being eager and uninhibited: narcissism and approachavoidance motivation. This research demonstrates that people want to fit in socially, and they also want others to see them in a positive light. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X11001233, Feinberg, M., Willer, R., and Schultz, M. (2014). All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version. The vulnerable (covert) subtype is a less studied type of narcissism that presents with hypersensitivity, defensiveness, and even shyness. Sci. Manag. New research published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science analyzed thousands of daily conversations to better understand the true nature of gossip. 22, 420. doi: 10.1037/a0019265, Jones, D. N., and Figueredo, A. J. doi: 10.1016/S0065-2601(07)00003-2, Kfner, A. C., Dufner, M., and Back, M. D. (2014). Narcissism on facebook: self-promotional and anti-social behavior. However, they do note that the majority of gossip (75%, to be exact) is non-evaluative, or neutral, in nature. Consequently, we explore whether motives show differential importance between these two situations and whether the dark triad traits show differential relationships to gossip reasons across situations (see also Beersma and Van Kleef, 2012). In contrast, relationship building (M = 3.16, SD = 1.70), protection (M = 3.10, SD = 1.58), and social enjoyment (M = 2.83, SD = 1.64) did not differ significantly from each other (ps = 0.351.0). One might argue that this positive view on gossip arises due to data flawed by participants' tendency to socially desirable responding. Similarly, the test of the interaction effect did not achieve sufficient power (0.68). Gossip on social media tends to be more harmful because the negative information has a wide audience and remains visible for a long time. People tend to think of gossip as synonymous with malicious rumors, put-downs or the breathless propagation of a tabloid scoop. Sign up for our weekly newsletters and get: By signing in, you agree to our Terms and Conditions doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.010, Nuzzo, R. L. (2017). Its harmful because without firsthand knowledge, those who are in a position to intervene in dangerous or destructive situations are unable to do so in a timely manner. Key is that youre sharing information in an appropriate way thats helping others. However, when using the more conservative Greenhouse-Geisser corrected statistics, the ANOVA yielded no significant interaction effect, F(4.15, 665) = 2.29, p = 0.06, P2 = 0.02. However, only four participants had missing values between 28.60 and 35.70%. Its not necessarily negative, adds David Ludden, professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College and the author of The Psychology of Language: An Integrated Approach. And indeed, research has shown that people give consideration to the fact that gossip differs and also gossipers differ from each other (Farley, 2011; Beersma and Van Kleef, 2012; Peters and Kashima, 2015). Another way to explore whether the reputation of gossip is justified is to examine the gossip reasons of individuals scoring high on narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Due to parsimonious reasons, we only report the results not controlling for gender. For instance, people scoring high on the dark triad traits report to have a strong desire for power, control, and dominance (e.g., Jonason et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2013; Semenyna and Honey, 2015). Inq. Studies from his group have shown that the more generous and moral among us are most likely to pass along rumors about untrustworthy people, and they report doing so because they are concerned about helping others. All regression analyses were also calculated including gender as control variable. If this explanation sounds overwhelming, the good news is that it's time to get practical. When you find out the person your friend has a crush on has a bad reputation for cheating, you let your friend know, not to hurt your friend, but as a warning. But its really not, McAndrew says. You find out someone in your company is not a team player and you let other coworkers know so that they can try to avoid working with that colleague. Its more difficult for real people to grow and change their personality traits (Wouldnt it be nice if we could resolve our biggest personality flaws in a few pages?). Interpersonal chemistry through negativity: bonding by sharing negative attitudes about others. Gossips have poor ego development and tend to be emotionally labile. Soc. 2. Psychol. Fifth, because of the relatively small sample size of N = 134 the power of the analysis might have been reduced resulting in a higher probability of type-II error. and Good Day Dallas. John R. "Jack" Schafer, Ph.D., is a behavioral analyst for the FBI, and is the author of The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over. Pum die Person, mit der ich gesprochen habe, vor dem Verhalten der abwesenden Person zu warnen. For example, if they are talkative at home, they tend also to be talkative at work. (A coworker unfairly gets a promotion. Proverbs 11:13 says, A gossip goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence. The one thing we can know for sure about an in the know gossip, is that they are not trustworthy. In line with that notion, it appears that negative gossip at the workplace is structured around scapegoats indicating that a large number of employees talk negatively about a small number of colleagues (Ellwardt et al., 2012a). This indicates that the data are about 124 times more likely under the model assuming an association between narcissism and gossip validation than under the model assuming no such association (BF10 = 123.92). (2010). This allowed researchers to unobtrusively listen in on, and analyze, the contents of participants' daily conversations. 27, 164168. How the grapevine keeps you in line: gossip increases contributions to the group. Shes the author of Seek: A Womans Guide to Meeting God, Raising Kids with Good Manners, and Taming Your Family Zoo, and has been a guest on numerous radio and television shows including Focus on the Family, At Home, Live! Thus, if individuals with dark personalities regularly use gossip to spread negative information and harm others that would surely contribute to the negative reputation of gossip. A man who spends most of his time gossiping about other people and even his friends usually has a general feeling of inadequacy in his own sphere of life. But if youve ever lived anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, you are already nodding your head. Psychol. Building new traits into your character is incredibly simple and has five foolproof steps: Step 1: Identify Character Traits That Inspire You. If you arent from the South, this one might not make sense to you. Nat. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. Contrary to conventional wisdom, gossip may not be as negative as we tend to think. The Motives to Gossip Questionnaire contains 22 items tapping into four different motives, namely the information gathering and validation motive (nine items), the social enjoyment motive (five items), the negative influence motive (five items), and the group protection motive (three items). Ratings were provided on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree). Denken Sie an eine vergangene Situation in Ihrem privaten Alltag, in der Sie Teil eines solchen Gesprchs (ber eine abwesende Person) waren. charismatic. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our, Digital For instance, gossiping just for fun might serve a recreational function, and, at the same time, create trust and closeness facilitating relationship building. Rev. But he didnt budge: hed talk about problems, not people. (2014). (2018b). Like this: Compliment: Jim and Mollys new house is amazing., Response: It should be. Mirroring the results of the classical repeated ANOVA, the Bayesian repeated ANOVA revealed that the situation as well as the interaction were not meaningful. Secondly, Dunbar (1998, 2004a) and Mesoudi et al. The most important motive was validating information about the gossip target followed by the motive to acquire new information about the gossip target. doi: 10.1037/a0034431, PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar, Back, M. D., Schmukle, S. C., and Egloff, B. So, whats so bad about in the know gossip? Pers. Pers. The standardized factor loadings for the six-factor model are presented separately in Figure 1 for both settings. Dunbar, R. (1998). Leave the exaggeration at the door, Willer says. And as word near-inevitably trickles back to source of said gossip, it can serve to keep people in check, morally speaking, Robbins adds. If you're known as a person who gossips and slanders, you're a loser. Friendship-selection in the shadow of the Dark Triad traits. Firstly, it is a well-known fact that Irish people love to laugh and, by that . David wrote, I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. Theory of mind and the evolution of language, in Approaches to the Evolution of Language, eds J. R. Hurford, M. Studdert-Kennedy, and C. Knight (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 92110. Thus, when thinking about the second gossip event participants might have explicitly thought about a gossip event differing from the previous one. Gossip as an alternative for direct observation in games of indirect reciprocity. Conversations about absent third parties appear to be an apparent method to do exactly that. How the power of storytelling can change the course of your career, What's the difference between a lame excuse and good one? Hurt. Public Adm. 85, 641665. Rev. Thus, unusual or emotional arousing gossip events might be remembered easily whereas irregular but frequent and relatively unimportant gossip events are not retrieved easily and perhaps forgotten entirely (Sudman et al., 1996; Tourangeau, 2000). This way, to gain social comparison information minimizes the potential psychological cost. 12, 97110. In the present study, the importance of gossip motives did not differ substantially between work and private situations. The ugly truth: negative gossip about celebrities and positive gossip about self entertain people in different ways. In a climate of trust, people with dark personalities could continue to follow their self-beneficial agendas without being hindered. 16:293. doi: 10.1037/a0020773, Wisse, B., and Sleebos, E. (2016). Faced with the concern that information about negative behavior runs through the grapevine and may consequently lead to the loss of reputation or even social exclusion, it prevents people from acting against social norms and the good of the group (Piazza and Bering, 2008; Beersma and Van Kleef, 2011; Feinberg et al., 2014; Wu et al., 2016). Evol. J. Pers. (2012). Until that day, shed always thought gossip was simply part of normal conversation. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.11.008, Jonason, P. K., Strosser, G. L., Kroll, C. H., Duineveld, J. J., and Baruffi, A. Foster, E. K. (2004). Negative gossip about celebrities and positive gossip about self entertain people in different ways. Bless Your Heart gossip is manipulative, spiteful, and mean. 34, 623633. In accordance with the national and institutional guidelines, ethical approval was not required for this study. Eur. Curiosity is an important character trait that can drive someone to want to know or learn new skills, information and abilities without being asked beforehand. No one is benefiting., Theres also a physiological distinction to be drawn between active and passive participation in gossip.