Gossiping just for fun and to pass time appears to be as important as relationship building and protecting others from harm. Rev. doi: 10.1002/per.1893, Jones, D. N., and Paulhus, D. L. (2011). NIum die abwesende Person in einem schlechten Licht darzustellen. Whereas, individuals scoring high on psychopathy and Machiavellianism pursue goals of a concrete, instrumental nature, individuals scoring high on narcissism aim for goals that are of an abstract, symbolic nature (Jones and Paulhus, 2011, p. 258). Contrary to that perspective, gossip is considered as a form of passive-aggressive form of workplace bullying in work and organizational literature (e.g., Lewis and Gunn, 2007; Crothers et al., 2009; Privitera and Campbell, 2009). It's important that psychologists understand a patient's emotional pain and to show compassion. revels in making others look bad when we feel like their life is better than ours. doi: 10.1002/9781118001868.ch15, Keltner, D., Van Kleef, G. A., Chen, S., and Kraus, M. W. (2008). Dunbar, R. (2004a). Gossiping also says something about the relationships people have with each other. In a study published earlier this year in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science 467 adults wore electronic recorders over the course of two to five days, which collected samples of their verbal conversations over that time period. Magazines, Digital One might assume that individuals scoring higher on narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy are more likely unconcerned with moral considerations and driven by selfish reasons when engaging in gossip, consequently, contributing to the negative reputation of gossip. These traits may include: People are generally not all good or all bad, or all positive or all negative. Eavesdropping in public settings reveals that people devote a substantial part of their conversations to gossip (e.g., Levin and Arluke, 1985; Dunbar et al., 1997). (If any of these sound familiar, consider them an opportunity for personal growth.). Hum. Roeser, K., McGregor, V. E., Stegmaier, S., Mathew, J., Kubler, A., and Meule, A. NIum den Ruf der abwesenden Person zu schdigen. 7 Articles, This article is part of the Research Topic, https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-68883, Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), Faculty of Communication and Environment, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kamp-Lintfort, Germany. doi: 10.1026/0012-1924/a000124, Kuo, C., Chang, K., Quinton, S., Lu, C., and Lee, I. Also, it is likely that work and private setting differ on a competitiveness-cooperativeness dimension. Cost them a fortune!. Figure 2. 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). Psychol. Taken together, both classical linear regression and Bayesian linear regression show that the importance of motives mainly depends on the gossiper's narcissism. Educ. In addition, Buffardi and Campbell (2008) showed that individuals scoring high on narcissism are more active on social networking sites such as Facebook (see also e.g., Carpenter, 2012). Armed with the knowledge of their peers decisions, participants then played the game over again in different groupings. Gossip isn't. People like to gossip. In addition, it has been suggested that, at the group level, gossip leads to group specific knowledge, norms, and trust, in turn supporting group cohesion and bonding (e.g., Dunbar, 2004b; Foster, 2004; Peters et al., 2017). Talking about the boss: Effects of generalized and interpersonal trust on workplace gossip. 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. Bless Your Heart gossip is manipulative, spiteful, and mean. However, most people gossip because gossiping is enjoyable for the sense of power it gives them. To consider a relationship building motive of gossip, three respective items were generated. IVum herauszufinden ob die Person, mit der ich gesprochen habe, genauso ber die abwesende Person denkt. They thrive on the notion that others fear them. The models predicting information validation (BF10 = 6.09), relationship building (BF10 = 25.36), and negative influence (BF10 = 123.43) show moderate to extreme evidence for the H1 indicating that the data are more likely under the model assuming associations between the three personality traits and the respective gossip motive than under the model assuming no association. In other words, people without anything to do will eventually start talking about you. Identity, self-concept, and self-esteem: the self lost and found, in Handbook of Personality Psychology, eds R. Hogan, J. Johnson, and S. Briggs (New York, NY: Elsevier), 681710. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12018, Grosser, T. J., Lopez-Kidwell, V., and Labianca, G. (2010). Were we not able to engage in discussions of these [social and personal] issues, we would not be able to sustain the kinds of societies that we do, she explained in a 2003 paper published in the Review of General Psychology. Netw. Eur. Personal. Spreading rumors about people who have behaved badly allows our friends and acquaintances to know who to trust. The Motives to Gossip Questionnaire asks participants to rate their reasons for gossip in a specific situation. Narcissism and social networking web sites. However, the latter is rather rare, because the INTP can actually come up with all sorts of extraordinary talents. Here we can assume rather strong situations. J. Pers. However, the model that receives most support was the model containing the motives factor only (BF10 = 4.48 1082). Pers. Approximately 1520 min were required to answer the questionnaire. doi: 10.1108/13563280410551114, Michelson, G., Van Iterson, A., and Waddington, K. (2010). This type of gossip begins with a compliment, but somewhere in the midst of the praise, a little piece of negative gossip slips in. Malicious mouths? In my 20-plus years of ministry, Ive noticed that people share prayer requests about others, more often than share requests about themselves. Eur. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.019, Wu, J., Balliet, D., and Van Lange, P. A. The study also found that the caudate nucleus, a reward center in the brain, was activated in response to negative gossip about celebrities; subjects seemed to be amused or entertained by salacious celebrity scandals. Yes! 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. Those who have the sickness of pride in their hearts speak of others' sins with contempt, irritation, frustration, or judgment. People tend to think of gossip as synonymous with malicious rumors, put-downs or the breathless propagation of a tabloid scoop. Predictors of a behavioral measure of scholastic cheating: personality and competence but not demographics. The most important motive was validating information about the gossip target followed by the motive to acquire new information about the gossip target. Which brings us to the heart of gossip. Halter, C. (2018). According to Jones and Paulhus (2011), narcissism can be distinguished from psychopathy and Machiavellianism by the type of goals they pursue. However, we can take some cues from these fictional people and their character traits in order to achieve our own goals. Are you naturally inquisitive? Gossip. Psychol. 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). Thinking About Answers: The Application of Cognitive Processes to Survey Methodology. Individ. And, even though the motives to gossip depend on the gossiper's personality (i.e., dark triad personality), also individuals with dark personalities appear to use gossip to tune their picture of other humans and themselves. What makes the prayer request gossip so insidious is that gossip is couched in spiritual sounding words like, we all need to pray for him.. It depends on whom you vent to, and how you vent. What have you done for me lately? This finding deviates from previous research where social enjoyment reasons were rated as more important than protection reasons (Beersma and Van Kleef, 2012). For instance, gossiping just for fun might serve a recreational function, and, at the same time, create trust and closeness facilitating relationship building. (2016). Evol. Rev. They believe strongly in not judging a book by its cover and prefer to keep an open mind when going into new situations and meeting new people. 8. . 98, 132145. Tell me the gossip: the self-evaluative function of receiving gossip about others. Identifying and profiling scholastic cheaters: their personality, cognitive ability, and motivation. No significant main effect for the factor situation was yielded indicating that the importance of motives was comparable for private and work-related situations, F(1, 133) = 2.94, p = 0.09, P2 = 0.02. 8, 7899. In another of Feinbergs studies, a group of participants identified members who behaved selfishly via gossip, and promptly kicked them out. God isnt fooled by our attempts at dressing up gossip in religious jargon. But these costs and benefits should be measured. (2012). (2013). The researchers listened to the sound files of the totality of those conversations and anything they classified as gossip (any talk about other people who werent part of the conversation) was coded as either positive, negative or neutral according to a standardized scale. 35, 371390. Remembering an event depends in part on the depth and elaboration of the encoding process of the event. Factor loadings of the items of the Motives to Gossip QuestionnaireRevised (confirmatory factor analysis) separately displayed for work and private setting (N = 134). Ratings were provided on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree). The underlying thought behind this type of gossip is Its about time they finally got what they deserve.. Assimilation and contrast effects in part whole question sequences: a conversational logic analysis. 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. For instance, when gossip validation in work context has been the dependent variable the model containing only narcissism reached the highest BF10. More specifically, respondents may deliberately ignore information that has already been provided in response to previous question (Schwarz and Bless, 1991; Schwarz et al., 1991; Schwarz, 1999). Nobody is 100% good all the time, and I certainly won't claim that distinction either. Psychol. To test differences in motives to talk about others, a 6 2 repeated measures 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. Six distinct reasons have been identified that underlie gossip behavior: information validation, information gathering, relationship building, protection, social enjoyment, and negative influence. Regina George is the queen bee, Karen Smith is the beautiful airhead and Gretchen Wieners is Toaster Strudel royalty. doi: 10.1016/j.socnet.2012.07.002, Ellwardt, L., Wittek, R., and Wielers, R. (2012c). Gossip as an alternative for direct observation in games of indirect reciprocity. In a similar vein, the dark side of personality probably has a high impact on gossip motives that serve individual purposes. Putting this all together, the study paints a rosier picture of gossip and its utility to everyday life than many would imagine. In addition, we extended the questionnaire by widening the number of possible reasons including gossiping in order to foster relationship building and to gather social information. Second, even people with so called dark personalities are not invariably triggered by malicious motives when talking about others. However, at the same time the rich representations of these unusual events of gossip make it more plausible that participants have a vivid and detailed memory and can therefore recall related aspects such as motivations for behavior more easily (Tourangeau, 2000). Thus, when thinking about the second gossip event participants might have explicitly thought about a gossip event differing from the previous one. In addition, they may also depend on the years in a specific organization. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. While listening to patients, psychologists must also guide the therapy process with their own questions. Individ. Its just social information and we learn a lot about the social world around us when we gossip. (2018a) a BF10 > 100 indicates extreme evidence for H1, a BF10 = 30100 indicates very strong evidence for H1, a BF10 = 1030 indicates strong evidence for H1, a BF10 = 310 indicates moderate evidence for H1, a BF10 = 13 signals anecdotal evidence for H1, BF10 = 1 indicates no evidence for H1, BF10 = 0.31 signals anecdotal evidence for H0, BF10 = 0.10.3 indicates moderate evidence for H0, BF10 = 0.030.1 signals strong evidence for H0, BF10 = 0.010.03 indicates very strong evidence for H0, and a BF10 < 0.01 indicates extreme evidence for H0. Its probably not doing anyone any favors. Hence, to evaluate whether a certain behavior is good or bad, the underlying reasons or the intentions should be taken into account. Why are narcissists so charming at first sight? The presence of gossip depends in large measure on how you talk about people who are not present and why you talk about them. Accordingly, two thirds of adult conversations in public settings involve gossip (e.g., Levin and Arluke, 1985; Dunbar et al., 1997). That means, when broadening the view and evaluating gossip not only with regard to social functions but also with regard the intention of the gossiper a positive impression of gossip emerges. How Psychologically Conditioned Rats Are Defusing Landmines, The Innate Intelligence Observed in the Dying Process. A., and Volk, A. Soc. In addition, Feinbergs research has shown that gossip can promote cooperation by spreading important information. Dif. Bull. More specifically, it has been suggested and empirically shown that, at the dyadic level, sharing gossip is associated with friendship (Grosser et al., 2010; Watson, 2011; Ellwardt et al., 2012b) and even leads to the development of friendships (Ellwardt et al., 2012b; see also Bosson et al., 2006). doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.54.2.93. Therefore, simply gathering and validating social information might be another salient reason for dark personalities to gossip. Psychol. 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. Dif. In order to explore to what extent gossip motives can be generalized across situations, two different situations were incorporated in the study (i.e., private as well as workplace situations). Its pretty generally accepted among social scientists (at least those who accept the theory of evolution) that gossip is likely a relic of our evolutionary past, McAndrews tells NBC News BETTER. This means, people instigate gossip to gather information and compare their ideas about others, to enjoy themselves, to spread negative information about a third person, and/or to protect the person they are talking with. Hearing information about others serves important social functions such as learning without direct interaction and observation. There are a number of explanations for this phenomenon. You feel violated and resentful. It can be positive or neutral.. He or she can feel your joys and sorrows and react accordingly to it. 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). Comments are posted anonymously about an individual. Pride is crouching inside our belittling of the struggles of others. Thus, an assimilation occurred in the first case whereas a contrast effect emerged in the second case. The ones who werent interested in the goings on of other people sort of got weeded out.. In contrast to our expectation, we did not find any negative relationship between the dark triad and the protection motive. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00956.x, Behling, O., and Law, K. S. (2000). (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill) 680740. doi: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00772.x, Williams, K. M., Nathanson, C., and Paulhus, D. L. (2010). Whats wrong with bitter-vengeful gossip? It appears that people mainly gossip for informational reasons and only marginally to harm others. First, we aim to examine the reasons for people to engage in gossip, replicating the study of Beersma and Van Kleef (2012). People will ask you for favors in life. Some people gossip to seek revenge. In the light of these findings one might speculate that for dark individuals gossiping about cheaters and free-riders removes potential rivals and creates a climate of trust. Her surprise at how serious God views gossip served as a giant wake up call to mea girl whose known gossip was wrong since childhood, but had somehow forgotten the gravity of gossip somewhere along the way. (2013). Thirdly, the present study has been conducted as an online study warranting complete anonymity. It would be nice if we could capture the entire human experience into five simple words. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2123, Piazza, J., and Bering, J. M. (2008). Neuroticism. regular fantasies about personal power, intelligence, success, or attractiveness. At first I pressed to know, claiming I couldnt really understand without every gritty detail. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1323-7, Wagenmakers, E. J., Marsman, M., Jamil, T., Ly, A., Verhagen, J., Love, J., et al. According to Wagenmakers et al. However, whereas individuals scoring high on narcissism appear to use gossip in a malicious way in private settings, individuals scoring high on Machiavellianism tend to bad-mouth others in professional settings. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. I love my child-free life. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy, pastor of the church at Ephesus, not to put young women on the widows list, because if they are on the list, they may learn to be lazy and will spend their time gossiping from house to house, meddling in other peoples business and talking about things they shouldnt. (1 Timothy 5:13). Rodrigues, C., Merz, M., Steininger, D., Beeser, C., and Terpelle-Winkelhusener, F. (2019). First, the motives captured in the Motives to Gossip Questionnaire as well as in the extended version are based on a literature review, and, therefore, ultimately originate from the mind of researchers. And indeed, a post hoc power analysis for the repeated ANOVA revealed that the F-test of the main effect situation did not achieve sufficient power (0.40) to detect an effect. 45, 784798. It's like one caveman beating up another caveman for control of the tribe-only it's done with cruel whispers and petty remarks instead of fists. (The researchers also polled how the subjects felt, in addition to studying what their brain images revealed. 40, 151192. Narcissistic admiration and rivalry: disentangling the bright and dark sides of narcissism. Validating their view of the social world and gaining information through gossip is likely to help the individual to form a map of their social environment and their position within that social environment in the long run (Suls, 1977; Baumeister et al., 2004; Foster, 2004; De Backer et al., 2007; Sommerfeld et al., 2007; Martinescu et al., 2014). Public Pers. This holds true in two fundamental domains of life, namely the private and the work context. Using gossip to build relationships was more often rated as relevant by individuals scoring higher on narcissism than by those scoring lower on narcissism both in work (p < 0.001) and private (p = 0.007) settings. This reaction also occurred when the participants heard negative gossip in general.