Gossip can have psychosocial benefits
By Liz Lockhart
Some kinds of gossip can bring positive effects according to a new study from the University of California, Berkleley. 
These beneficial effects include helping to police bad behaviour, lower stress levels and can also prevent abuse.
A co-author of the study, Dr. Robb Willer said ‘Gossip gets a bad rap, but we’re finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the maintenance of social order.’
Research found that gossip serves as a means to relieve stress and can, therefore, be a therapeutic outlet. For example, the heart rates of volunteer participants increased when they witnessed someone behaving badly, bud this was relieved when they were able to alert others by passing on the information.
Willer said ‘Spreading information about the person whom they had seen behave badly tended to make people feel better, quieting the frustration that drove their gossip.’
It is claimed that the need to warn others of unpleasant individuals is ingrained in us.
For the purposes of this study the participants sacrificed money to send a ‘gossip note’ to warn others who were about to play in an economic trust game. These notes could be used to warn new players about cheaters.
The researchers said that the overall findings indicate that people need not feel bad about revealing the vices of others, especially if it helps save someone from exploitation.
Lead author of the paper, Matthew Feinberg said ‘We shouldn’t feel guilty for gossiping if the gossip helps prevent others from being taken advantage of.’
‘Prosocial’ gossip was the focus of this study. Willer said that this ‘has the function of warning others about untrustworthy or dishonest people. This is the opposite to voyeuristic rumour-mongering about everyday individuals and celebrities.
Four experiments were carried out by the researchers using games in which the players’ kindness to other players was measured by how much money or how many points they shared.
In the initial experiment, volunteers were attached to heart rate monitors as they observed the scores of two people playing the game. After two rounds the observers,51 participants in total, could see that one player was cheating and hoarding all the points.
The heart rates of the observers increased as they watched the cheating and most of them found an opportunity to pass a ‘gossip note’ to warn a new player that his or her opponent was unlikely to play fairly. The passing on of the note calmed the rise in heart rate.
Willer sais ‘Passing on the gossip note ameliorated their negative feelings and tempered their frustration. Gossip made them feel better.’
In a further experiment, 111 individuals completed questionnaires about their level of co-operation and altruism. The then watched footage showing the scores from the prior three experiments. They observed that one player was cheating.
The observers who were more pro-social reported that they felt frustrated by the cheating and then felt relieved to be given the opportunity to slip a gossip note to the next player to prevent them from being exploited.
Feinberg said ‘A central reason for engaging in gossip was to help others out, more so than just to talk trash about the selfish individual. Also, the higher participants scored on being altruistic, the more likely they were to experience negative emotions after witnessing the selfish behaviour and the more likely they were to engage in the gossip.’
When looking at the findings from all four experiments we see that ‘When we observe someone behave in an immoral way, we get frustrated. But being able to communicate this information to others who could be helped makes us feel better,’ Willer said.
Source: UC -Berkeley
