Gossip can ruin lives!
But could it also improve them?
Hey guys, Tara here for Dnews - and if sites like Facebook and Twitter have taught us anything
- it’s that people love to gossip.
It’s human nature!
And we’ve always been taught that it’s a bad thing, and that we shouldn’t do it.
But new research shows that may not be the case.
A study published this week in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, finds that
hearing gossip, may actually help us adapt to our social environments, allowing us the
opportunity to self-improve and expose potential threats.
For their study, a team of researchers from the Netherlands asked a group of participants
to recall an incident where they had received either positive or negative gossip about someone
else.
Then, they were asked to measure how that gossip had affected their levels of self-improvement,
self-promotion, and self-protection.
What they discovered, is that hearing positive gossip tends to lead to self-improvement.
In the sense that when we hear something great about someone else, it indirectly suggests
ways that we can improve upon ourselves.
Makes sense.
But what about negative gossip?
How does that affect us?
Well, according to their findings, negative gossip produces a two-fold reaction.
On the one hand, it increases our self-promotion - because in a weird Schadenfreude kind of
way, it can be flattering to know that we’re doing better than other people.
At the same time, though, it also increases our self-protection concerns - because it
signifies that we could also potentially be affected by whatever negative treatments befell
the person we’re gossiping about.
Obviously, these aren’t hard-and-fast guidelines - and people react differently to gossip,
depending on their personality.
Which is why researchers conducted another part to this study, where they assigned participants
one of two different personalities: a sales agent who uses their knowledge and skills
to get ahead, or a sales agent who tramples over others to demonstrate their superiority.
In this example, they found that the people who really cared about improving their job
performance through knowledge and skills, were more likely to LEARN from positive gossip.
Whereas those who trampled over others to get ahead, typically felt threatened when
hearing good news about someone else.
So how good of a person you are, is clearly a factor.
But there are also differences among genders.
Women, for example, tend to be more fearful when they hear negative gossip about someone,
because they’re afraid that it could happen to them, too.
Men, not so much.
In fact, men tended to be more fearful of positive gossip, because it was seen as a
potential threat.
No matter how you react, it seems at least one thing is clear: gossip causes everyone
to self-reflect - and in some cases, that reflection can and does lead to self-improvement.
Speaking of things to be fearful of, recently we did a Test Tube episode on cyberbullying
- and whether or not it’s actually illegal.
This has been a huge hot-button topic lately, so if you’re interested in knowing more
about it, I implore you to check out that episode at youtube.com/testtubenetwork.