Gossiping is a good thing? That’s what these psychologists are saying today. My parents always told me to never gossip or talk about anyone behind their back. Doing that is just a waste of time and energy when you can just say it to their face. Psychologists are saying something way different than what my parents taught me.
Studies are finding that gossip is actually good for you in a sense and it isn’t always a bad thing. A study called “The Virtues of Gossip,” , found that gossip can play the role of protecting others from being exploited by passing on information about bad behavior to warn others. A man , who is a postdoctoral student at Stanford, named Matthew Feinberg said if you tell people that a person is a jerk, then people learn to avoid this person. This is what http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/your-money/studies-find-gossip-isnt-just-loose-talk.html?pagewanted=all&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A15%22%7D says.
Also, a professor named Professor Willer did a study showing how just the threat of gossip could encourage people to be nicer. About 300 participants played an economic trust game online using raffle tickets that will be entered for a $50 drawing. They knew that they were going to be talked about if they didn’t play fairly. This made all of the participants to become more generous.
Another study that happened was Bianca Beersma, an associate of work psychology, and Gerban van Kleef, a professor of social psychology, told a group of people that they were randomly picked to distribute 100 lottery tickets with a cash prize. They had a choice to be generous and give away the tickets or keep it all to themselves. Half the time, the participant was told the choice would be kept private and no one would know. The rest of the time, the decision would be publicized in the group. At the private time, these people were being more selfish and kept most of the lottery tickets, but when it became publicized , they became less selfish. They knew that people would gossip about them, so they started doing more of the right thing.
According to this website http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sideways-view/201311/gossip-is-good-you, it says that sharing gossip builds and secures bonds and it can be influential to others. Gossip is also the way corporate cultures are established and maintained. It sometimes is a social norm in certain cultures and it can let off team, anger, or stress. So is gossip good for you? A little bit, depending on what angle you’re looking at it.
Yeah I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t affect the person itself, but actually the people who hear about this person. They see that everyone is talking rudely or negative about this person and it may change the way they approach certain things. It can also affect how these people act.
This post is quite interesting and definitely gave me a different look at it. My personal opinion is that most gossip doesn’t effect a person’s actions. When I was in high school senior year was filled with gossip and twitter subtweets about people. Everyone knew who they were about and it never changed that person at all. If that person wants to be a jerk they are going to be one regardless of what people think. Jerks are friends with jerks so they think they are just being themselves and not affecting anyone. Most of the time they think they are funny when they don’t realize the true pain they cause others. Gossip I would say 95% of the time has no affect on the person. There are very little things in this world that can change who a person is. Here is another interesting post on gossip and its effects http://chealth.canoe.ca/channel_section_details.asp?text_id=4945&channel_id=11&relation_id=27879.
Your blog raises some outstanding points, I never would have thought of a good side to gossiping. Unfortunately though I see the negatives of gossiping to far exceed the positives, one bad “first impression” can change the way a person is treated by others who may think otherwise if they didn’t hear gossip. When gossip goes wrong it can lead to “loneliness, depression and anxiety” for the victim, according to the American Psychological Association. Below is a link to research that shows the bad effects of gossip, I encourage you to take a look.
http://www.apa.org/research/action/blues.aspx
I found your post super interesting. I attended a school in which they strongly frowned upon gossiping. They went as far as to make us even sign a contract saying we wouldn’t gossip. Personally gossip doesn’t bother me to much but heres an article that talks about the benefits of preventing gossiping. You should check it out! http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/friends/rumors/article6.html
I think that regardless of it’s “beneficial” factors, gossiping is never okay. Gossiping has the ability to bond certain types of people, but there are other ways of producing a connection with someone. Although this information is thought provoking, and beneficial in understanding why people gossip, it shouldn’t be used as an excuse to gossip.
Being a teenage girl, I feel like I know all there is to know about gossiping, but I never thought it could actually be considered a good thing. It was extremely interesting to read about something that already has such preconceived thoughts about it. “Gossiping is bad and carries a lot of drama,” is what I was always taught growing up, but it would make sense that gossip secures bonds and is a good way to relieve stress. It’s nice to know that gossiping isn’t all that bad after all!
I can see this how works – by gossiping with others, we have the ability to form trust bonds with those we’re sharing with. At the same time, gossiping about others may help us to realize that in being a better person, we should gossip less. Interesting blog!