Concerns about reputation via gossip promote generous allocations in an economic game. RBum das Vertrauen der Person, mit der ich geredet habe, zu gewinnen. 27, 169184. They were not good at attracting and keeping mates, or maintaining alliances. Is obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, Psychol. 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). Soc. Such a procedure would presumably detach the dependency of single highly salient gossip events and would also open the opportunity to study individual differences in stable underlying motives. Missing data: our view of the state of the art. I dont want to gossip to the Pastor. It never occurred to any of them they were gossiping to everyone but the Pastor! In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. Dont let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good., Photo courtesy:Thinkstock/g-stockstudio. In order to gain more knowledge about the effects of situational attributes on gossip motives, frequency, and valence future research should use experimental design or intensive longitudinal methods (i.e., diary and experience sampling). Welche Motive Fhren zu Gossip und Welche Emotionen Begleiten uns Dabei und Resultieren Daraus? A good gossiper is someone who people trust with information and someone who uses that information in a responsible way. The two cannot coexist. To start, they report that just about everyone gossips a lot. Back, M. D., Kfner, A. C., Dufner, M., Gerlach, T. M., Rauthmann, J. F., and Denissen, J. J. However, jobs, workplaces, and organizations are highly different in terms of normative expectations and competitiveness. The form of gossip weve found beneficial is negative gossip about people who have behaved in an antisocial way, Willer says. Gossip runs like a thread through our social world. Chuck is impulsive, daring, and loves to take risks. Six distinct motives were identified that underlie gossip behavior: information validation, information gathering, relationship building, protection, social enjoyment, and negative influence. In clear contrast to the bad reputation, gossiping is not mainly driven by malicious reasons. They prefer to do the least amount for the most gain, believing any and all. Gossip and emotion in nursing and health-care organizations. However, the model that receives most support was the model containing the motives factor only (BF10 = 4.48 1082). 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. More specifically, we investigate whether individuals scoring high on the dark triad personality traits are more ready to use gossip in order to harm others and to serve themselves, thereby, contributing to the negative reputation of gossip. : a social network perspective on workplace gossip. Gossips have poor ego development and tend to be emotionally labile. The Dark Triad of personality and unethical behavior at different times of day. Despite important social functions gossip has a rather negative reputation. Gossip never blesses anyoneeven if bless your heart is tagged on at the end. The Screaming Mimi. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. We all know gossip to be a human universalbut does it get an undeservedly bad rap? Dunbar, R. (1998). All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version. If you're known as a person who gossips and slanders, you're a loser. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.821, Feinberg, M., Cheng, J. T., and Willer, R. (2012). 19. Rodrigues, C., Merz, M., Steininger, D., Beeser, C., and Terpelle-Winkelhusener, F. (2019). 56, 12131232. Fifteen percent of gossip is negative while the remaining 10% is positive or flattering. Diagnostica 61, 7691. Unnecessary gossip and slander. Finally, it has been suggested that gossip has an entertainment function providing recreational value and considerable stimulation for very little costs (Foster, 2004; Peng et al., 2015). J. Pers. Read: That urge to share a juicy piece of news when you hear it is part of who we are and a natural characteristic of the species weve become. compassionate. Until that day, shed always thought gossip was simply part of normal conversation. The aims of the present study are 2-fold. For snowball sampling they were asked to distribute the link to colleagues and other employees. When subjects heard about another persons anti-social behavior or an injustice, their heart rates increased. This unsolicited interference often manifests as questions and comments relating to our personal matters such as our health, career, and relationships. Talking about the boss: Effects of generalized and interpersonal trust on workplace gossip. Soc. Most start with the same basic idea: Gossip is a conversation between two people that concerns a third person who is not present. A lot of gossip is driven by concern for others and has positive, social effects., Work from his group has also found that engaging in gossip can actually temper some of our frustrations and other negative emotions we feel when we find out someone has behaved in a deviant way. First, share personal requests. Yes! When my husband first became a pastor, he quickly learned frustration, disappointment, and hurt sometimes came with the territory. In line with that notion, research shows that individuals who show a high frequency of negative gossip are rated as highly dislikable (Farley, 2011). (2015) examined brain imaging of men and women as they listened to positive and negative gossip about themselves and celebrities. 41, 574579. Instead, If your enemies are hungry, feed them. Psychol. (2019). Health Organ. The German Version of the Revised Motives to Gossip Questionnaire In unserem privaten Alltag kommt es hufig vor, dass wir ber eine dritte Person sprechen, die nicht anwesend ist. A personality trait describes how a person tends to think, feel, and behave on an ongoing basis. Pers. Avoider gossip is based in fear, not love. Contrary to conventional wisdom, gossip may not be as negative as we tend to think. SEweil wir uns die Zeit vertreiben wollten. They are hard to spot, but every bit as destructive as other times of gossips. Pers. PMandR 9, 12781282. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1977.tb01812.x, Swann, W. B., Stephenson, B., and Pittman, T. S. (1981). doi: 10.1037/a0016338, Barrett, L., Dunbar, R., and Lycett, J. Prayer request gossip hurts as much as any other type of gossipmaybe more. According to Wagenmakers et al. The way of being obsessive is mainly determined by the perfection of things. If we do vent to people, lets be sure we dont taint another persons reputation in a way that cant be recovered. 29, 172178. 42, 26402670. However, the association with personality varies between motives, traits, and situations. doi: 10.1016/j.socnet.2012.07.002, Ellwardt, L., Wittek, R., and Wielers, R. (2012c). 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. Also, frequent gossipers are perceived as less likable and less popular than people gossiping less frequently (Farley, 2011; Ellwardt et al., 2012b). However, correlations are not displayed due to clarity reasons. To examine whether the importance of motives depends on the personality of the gossiper, multiple regression analyses were conducted with the dark triad personality traits as independent variables and motives as dependent variables for both work and private situations, respectively. Anger. doi: 10.1177/1745691616666070, Nathanson, C., Paulhus, D. L., and Williams, K. M. (2006). Gossiping with a person in order to warn that person of a target person appears not to spur gossip for any of the dark personalities. doi: 10.1007/BF02912493, Eckhaus, E., and Ben-Hador, B. Similarly, the test of the interaction effect did not achieve sufficient power (0.68). Do loose lips sink ships? 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). Pers. 1. Comments are posted anonymously about an individual. David wrote, I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. Hurt. Gossip assures we get it. doi: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2017.11.003, OBoyle, E. H., Forsyth, D. R., Banks, G. C., and Mcdaniel, M. A. Spreading rumors and gossip is one of the main ways people cut another person's status, especially among girls. van de Schoot, R., Kaplan, D., Denissen, J., Asendorpf, J. Sometimes the compliment turned critic offers gossip in response to a compliment. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons were two of Hollywood's favorite gossip columnists during the so-called Hollywood Golden Age, with film studios planting items to help publicize their stars and movies. In fact, these two aspects are key in this type of personality. Influence tactics and objectives in upward, downward, and lateral influence attempts. An avoider gossip learns something negative about someone, but fears addressing the issue face to face. 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). Out of jealousy or a need for revenge Pers. You cant keep your mouth shut that your friends marriage is on the fritz; you let your entire circle of friends know that another friend did poorly on a big exam. People hearing gossip good and bad about themselves, as well as negative gossip in general, showed more activity in the prefrontal cortex of their brains, which is key to our ability to navigate complex social behaviors. revels in making others look bad when we feel like their life is better than ours. When they are the first to volunteer their time, you can remark on their generosity. (2015). Therefore, corrected F-values are reported (Huynh-Feldt). Additionally, as people with dark personalities are not concerned with others' welfare, they probably use gossip less often to protect other individuals or their group from harm (but see Lyons and Hughes, 2015). Biblically, a gossip is defined as a tale-bearer, a whisperer, a secret slanderer. Anytime we say anything about someone privately that we wouldnt say publicly, its gossip. You find out your friends ex is cheating on his new partner. A proud woman born to a highly respected Southern family, Miss Emily seems frozen in the past, bearing herself aristocratically even when she is impoverished after her controlling father's death. The positive BF10s indicate 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 line with that notion, women scoring high on the dark triad traits use gossipamong other strategiesto derogate competitors (Carter et al., 2015). 3 Ways to Reclaim Your Hope and Happiness, 7 Ticking Time Bombs That Destroy Loving Relationships, An Addiction Myth That Needs to Be Revisited, 5 Spiritual Practices That Increase Well-Being. 40, 16681680. They'll find a way to cultivate it, so they can use it to get what they want from you. For example, anyone can occasionally have a bad day and make a snappy remark. Gossiping is a social skill.. 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. Did you hear how much they paid for it? 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). Information validation shows a consistent positive relationship with narcissism. doi: 10.1177/0146167292185007, Schwarz, N., Strack, F., and Mai, H. (1991). "Mean Girls" is arguably one of the most quotable comedies of all time, with the most iconic characters of all time. Individuals who had given less than half their points initially increased their contributions by the end of the latter rounds, while those who had been excluded gave significantly more after they were allowed back into the game, conforming to the less selfish behavior. In line with that notion, they were able to show that individuals scoring high on narcissism are not choosy when selecting friends. Gossip differs from the human tendency to talk about other people in that gossip tends to focus on negative information to demean the target. People usually gossip spontaneously and in private, so it's almost impossible to study gossip in a laboratory setting. Bayesian regression analyses were conducted in two steps. Striving for truth in our relationships with others shows we care about their desires and choices. Soc. Behav. The study conforms with the Declaration of Helsinki and the ethics guidelines of the German Psychological Society. 97:557. doi: 10.1037/a0025679, Paulhus, D. L. (1998). 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). Given these strengths, some limitations need to be considered. 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. 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. A. He is bursting with a thirst for knowledge, inventiveness and creativity. Sometimes bitter-vengeful gossip is driven by jealousy. 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. So while it is true that people can spend a significant amount of time talking about their peers, oftentimes that chatter is benign. Bivariate correlations between all variables are displayed in Table 1. (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. A less benign form of gossip is when people discuss information about celebrities or other people highlighted in tabloids or social media. Based on the work of Mischel (1977), researchers differentiate between strong situations with normative expectations and clear roles that constrain behavior, and weak situations which do not provide normative expectations, and, therefore, allow for more freedom in behavior and the expression of personality. Personality traits reflect people's characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Some things are not ours to shareeven in the form of prayers. Interestingly, with regard to the dark triad personality traits, only narcissism shows consistent associations with motives to gossip. Pers. First, we aim to examine the reasons for people to engage in gossip, replicating the study of Beersma and Van Kleef (2012). The 2 Most Psychologically Incisive Films of 2022, The Surprising Role of Empathy in Traumatic Bonding. (2013). Id venture a guess that every church (and many families) in America has oneif not manyavoider gossips. Relationships between bullying behaviours and the Dark Triad: a study with adults. Psychol. For the Scriptures say, I will take revenge ;I will pay them back, says the Lord. Another reason to exchange information about a third person was to build trust to one's gossip partner. The dark triad personality traits were entered as independent variables and motives as dependent variables. IGum Neuigkeiten ber die abwesende Person in Erfahrung zu bringen. Psychol. Noseyness is when someone whom we don't want to interfere in our life does so. When we engage in bitter-vengeful gossip we dont simply want vindication for wrongs done to us (real or perceived); we want vengeance. I just hope her new job doesnt affect her family. Compass 7, 199216. The sensitive child feels everything. The reason most often cited? But what makes someones personality so attractive? When someone always tells the truth, honesty is one of their personality traits. Using diaries to explore the characteristics of work-related gossip: methodological considerations from exploratory multimethod research. Research demonstrates that gossip is emotionally rewarding. (2014). Therefore, the present online study focuses on the reasons why people gossip and how these reasons are related to personality (i.e., dark triad) and situational settings. To ensure the internal validity, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) using AMOS (version 24.0.0) were conducted for private and work setting separately (see Figure 1). 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). Mannheim: Zentrum fr Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen -ZUMA-. The co-evolution of gossip and friendship in workplace social networks. For instance, in a study conducted by Schwarz and Bless (1992), participants were asked about a specific politician (i.e., Barschel) who was involved in a scandal. Hum. Taken together, the BF10s in the work setting showed that in 5 out of 6 analyses the BF10s are highest when the models include only narcissism. Latent factors are allowed to correlate. 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. Obsessive personality: 10 main traits Perfectionism and meticulousness Possibly, the trait that best defines obsessional personality is the Perfectionism And thoroughness. 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. J. Soc. Who hasnt wanted to get something off their chesteven if that something painted someone else in a negative light? All rights reserved. Gossip in organizations: contexts, consequences, and controversies. For example, if they are talkative at home, they tend also to be talkative at work. The subscales exhibited satisfactory reliability in the present study with = 0.84 for narcissism, = 0.85 for Machiavellianism, and = 0.75 for psychopathy which is comparable to previous research (Kfner et al., 2014). Means, standard deviation (in parenthesis), and error bars for the different motives displayed separately for work and private setting (N = 134). This way, to gain social comparison information minimizes the potential psychological cost. (2004), for instance, understand gossip as an extension of observational learning. The alpha male is not a pushover. 73, 2938. He's not afraid to say "no". Scandals and the public's trust in politicians: assimilation and contrast effects. Torres research has found that gossip can stave off loneliness, while other studies have found it can facilitate bonding and closeness and serve as a form of entertainment. Dif. Dif. 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. Another argument speaking against the assumption that an assimilation effect has occurred is the operation of conversational norms that prohibit redundancy. Corp. Commun. Relat. Psychol. Eur. However, this difference between work and private setting has to be interpreted with care as different F-test corrections come to different results and the Bayes analyses show that the data get more support when including only motive as predictor in the model. Here's what they found. doi: 10.1002/per.1893, Jones, D. N., and Paulhus, D. L. (2011). Figure 2. Divide the group into smaller groups of three. Schwarz, N., and Bless, H. (1991). An introduction to Bayesian data analysis for correlations. While the Bless Your Heart gossip cloaks negative information about others in a guise of compassion, the bitter-vengeful gossip makes no attempt at hiding his or her glee at others misfortune. Gossiping gives people a sense of power. Public Opin. In general, gossip appears to be a widely spread and almost inevitable phenomenon. 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. When we notice something unjust in the world, our natural instinct as a Libra is to want to correct it, to create balance and harmony. People who heard either positive or negative gossip about themselves showed more activity in the prefrontal cortex of their brains, which helps people navigate complex social behaviors. This finding deviates from previous research where social enjoyment reasons were rated as more important than protection reasons (Beersma and Van Kleef, 2012). Why people gossip: an empirical analysis of social motives, antecedents, and consequences. However, men and women differ significantly with regard to psychopathy (women M = 2.50, SD = 1.58 vs. men M = 3.08, SD = 1.73; t(132) = 2.01, p = 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.35). Regression analysis with motives as dependent variables and dark triad personality traits as independent variables (N = 134). doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2123, Piazza, J., and Bering, J. M. (2008). Students with large appetites for success tend to have low tolerances for failure and might be unfair to themselves when they don't perform as well as they would like to. 27, 164168. 45, 784798. Characteristics of gossips are: insecurity, jealous of others, low self esteem, angry at the world, have too much idle time on their hands, usually don't have any hobbies or activities they could be doing instead of rumor mongering, unhappy with their lives, don't like to see other people happy, attention seekers, like giving the illusion that Miss Emily Grierson Character Analysis. That is, individuals scoring high on the dark triad traits gossip as often as individuals scoring low on the dark triad traits in order to protect somebody. Keywords: gossip, gossip motives, situation, dark triad, narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, Citation: Hartung F-M, Krohn C and Pirschtat M (2019) Better Than Its Reputation? However, they do note that the majority of gossip (75%, to be exact) is non-evaluative, or neutral, in nature. (2010). 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.

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