THE SOURCE “Is Gossip Good for You? Links Between Gossiping Behavior and Subjective Well-Being” — Jennifer Cole and Hannah Scrivener, presented Sept. 7 at a British Psychological Society conference.
“IF you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me,” Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a self-proclaimed “hedonist,” used to say. But it seems the greater pleasure comes from more temperate gossip.
New research finds that gossiping can be good for you — as long as you have something nice to say.
In a presentation in September, Jennifer Cole, a social psychologist, and Hannah Scrivener reported results from two related studies, both of which demonstrate that it’s in one’s self-interest to say “So-and-so’s second husband is adorable” rather than “She married that lout?”
In the first study, intended to measure a person’s short-term emotional reaction to gossiping, 140 men and women, primarily undergraduates, were asked to talk about a fictional person either positively or negatively.
The second study, which looked into the long-term effects of gossiping on well-being, had 160 participants, mostly female undergrads, fill out questionnaires about their tendency to gossip, their self-esteem and their perceived social support.
According to Dr. Cole, after speaking kindly of others, positive emotions were raised 3 percent, negative emotions were reduced 6 percent, and self-esteem rose 5 percent. These are not huge numbers, as Dr. Cole is the first to admit. But it’s nonetheless one of the few times researchers have attributed anything beneficial to the silly art of gossip.
And there was one decidedly positive result: whether kind or cruel, gossip was associated with a greater sense of social support for the perpetuator.
But does tittle-tattle really help attract more friends? “It could be that people who gossip a lot think they have social support, but they don’t actually,” Dr. Cole said, noting that previous research shows people tend to dislike and mistrust gossips.
“We’re all gossipers,” said Judith Martin, a k a Miss Manners. “We bond that way, and people who talk about other people are interesting.” But, she added, “People who spread malicious gossip are despicable.” Miss Manners would appreciate then, that the consequences of bad-mouthing others were pronounced — not just on the targets, something established by plenty of earlier research — but on the gossipers themselves.
After criticizing other people, gossipers’ positive emotions were reduced by 16 percent and negative emotions increased 34 percent. It may be a function of empathy; we feel badly for the objects of our derision. Or it could be selfishness; we realize people won’t like us for nattering on meanly about others.
But what of Mrs. Longworth, the celebrated Washington socialite?
“She was a law unto herself,” said Ms. Martin, who knew Mrs. Longworth during her later years. “A lot of people did sit next to her!”
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