We’ve always been taught never to talk behind another person’s back – the teen comedy Mean Girls really hammers this point home – but researchers from the University of California, Berkeley are suggesting that gossip might actually have some positive benefits.
Based on a series of four experiments, the study found that gossip can help to lower stress, monitor bad behavior and prevent the exploitation of others.
“Gossip gets a bad rap, but we’re finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the maintenance of social order,” said study coauthor Robb Willer. “Spreading information about the person whom they had seen behave badly tended to make people feel better, quieting the frustration that drove their gossip. … Passing on the gossip note ameliorated their negative feelings and tempered their frustration. Gossiping made them feel better.”
There was even some physical evidence that gossip can have therapeutic effects:
“Volunteers’ heart rates increased when they witnessed someone behaving badly, but this increase was tempered when they were able to pass on the information to alert others.”
Notes lead author Matthew Feinberg, “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 behavior and the more likely they were to engage in the gossip.”
Heather Rudow is a staff writer for Counseling Today. Email her at hrudow@counseling.org.
Follow Counseling Today on Twitter.