Study Shows Gossiping Is Actually Good For Us, And Men Gossip Just As Much As Women
If you're someone who loves to gossip, chances are there have probably been times in your life where people like your mother or even your friends have told you that you gossip "too much" or you spend too much time talking about other people. While that may be true, it turns out you're not the only one doing it—and it might actually be good for you.
Gossiping Isn't Just For Teenagers In Movies
There's a common stereotype that the only people who gossip are catty girls, and the sole purpose of gossip is to hurt other people, so researchers at the University of California decided to perform a study. The goal of the study was to look at how people "gossip" on a daily basis and to see if it's always as harmful as people think.
What Kind Of Gossip Were They Listening For?
The researchers studied the conversations of 467 people using recording devices that they wore for a certain period of time every day. The conversations were sorted based on gossip or other types of conversation; whether the conversations were negative, positive, or neutral; the subject of the conversation, i.e., celebrity or acquaintance; as well as the topic of the gossip itself (physical appearance, social status, achievement, etc.).
We Spend Nearly An Hour Of Our Day Gossiping
The first thing the study found that was surprising is that on average, we spend 52 minutes out of every day gossiping, and of that, only 15% of that gossip could be considered negative. The most common type of gossip was simply neutral and was based on social information rather than specifically about a person or a group of people you know.
A Common Misconception Proved Wrong
One of the biggest things this study proved was that women are not the only gender who are interested in gossiping. The research found that men tend to gossip just as much as women do, and in most cases, women's gossip tended to be more neutral whereas men's was either negative or positive. The study also found that younger people engaged in more negative gossip than older people.
Gossiping Helps Us Establish Trust In Our Friends
In terms of how gossiping could actually be considered a good thing, the study found that people who gossip tend to be more extroverted people, and gossip can be used as a way to help us build trust and cooperation in our friend groups or inner circles. It can also teach us about the importance of only sharing information with people we're confident we can confide in.
Even Negative Gossip Can Still Be Good For You
Despite 15% of the gossip we engage in being negative, researchers said that this can still be considered a positive because we can learn from it. We can acknowledge the things that we find annoying or unlikable in other people and develop ourselves based on those things.
