If you think gossiping behind people’s backs is a sin, you may be very wrong. Some studies have concluded that backbiting or gossip is actually considered healthy and helpful for the human soul.
According to a new study by Dartmouth College, an Ivy League research university, gossip fosters social connections between people and provides indirect insight into the world through the experiences of others.
While many people may have a bias against “gossip,” in fact, gossip is not necessarily about spreading rumors or badmouthing others; an earlier study found that about 14 percent of people’s daily conversations are gossiping with others, and that much of it is neutral gossip.
Eshin Jolly, a postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Social Affective Neuroscience Laboratory (COSAN Lab), has been working with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AASAS) on the study. Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) website, “EurekAlert!” that gossip or gossiping is a complex form of communication that is often misunderstood.
According to Jolly, gossip has transcended its typical negative connotations and “has become a way to connect socially and substantively.
Jolly co-authored the study with Luke Chang, assistant professor of psychology and brain sciences and director of the COSAN lab.
Before the study began, both Jolly and Luke Chang were curious about why people spend so much time exchanging information about themselves and others in their personal and professional lives.
They wanted to find out why people gossip and how it affects their psychology, so they created an online game to examine the role of gossip and how it manifests itself as information becomes more uncertain in the game, with participants divided into teams of six playing a total of ten rounds.
Participants were given a $10 prize in each round, which they could choose to keep in their own pockets or invest in a group fund, which was multiplied by 1.5 times and distributed equally to each participant.
The purpose of the game is to create an inherent tension between participants, that is, is it for selfish reasons to ride along or for the sake of the whole to cooperate with each other? This is considered by the researchers to be a public goods game.
“We are hoping to create a lifelike scenario in which each participant is a member of the community and is influenced by the behavior of all other community members, but most of whom rarely observe and directly participate in it.” The researchers said.
Participants in the process were also allowed to talk privately with another participant in the group, and they were allowed to communicate information about the attitudes of other participants, among other things, to their partners.
The study showed that gossip is a “rich, multifaceted communication” and that there are different types of gossip. Spontaneous conversations about others occurred more frequently when participants were able to observe the dynamics of only a few members of the same group.
However, when participants had an unobstructed view of all members of the group, they were more likely to engage in small talk and talk about broader, non-game related topics.
The study also showed that the strongest bonds form between those who talk to each other the most during the game, and that these bonds are still present and huge after the game is over.
“Gossip is a way to build relationships. It involves mutual trust and promotes social bonds, which are strengthened with further communication.” Luke Chang sums it up.
Gossip “helps people learn from the experiences of others, while bringing them closer to each other in the process,” Jolly added.
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