Positive and negative gossip is good for people. The effect that gossip has on a given individual depends on if they are performance oriented or achievement oriented and also depends on the sex of the individual. The examination of the beneficial role that gossip plays in people’s lives was conducted by Elena Martinescu and colleagues from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
The major benefits of gossip are selfish. Gossip makes a person evaluate themselves more frequently in order to improve, promote, or protect themselves. The response to gossip is independent of the positive or negative content of the gossip. Positive gossip increased people’s efforts at self-improvement. Negative gossip made people more aware of the need for self-protection and self-promotion.
Negative gossip increased people’s pride as a result of the desire for self-promotion. Negative gossip also raised levels of fear and anxiety because people thought that they might be the target of similar negative gossip. Women became more self-protective as the result of negative gossip. Positive gossip increased fear in men that stemmed from expectations of having to compete with more dominant competitors. People that had a mastery goal sought self-protection from positive gossip about another individual. People with a performance goal felt threatened by positive gossip that could indicate their potential for failure in light of other people’s success.
The researchers content that gossip is good for people. The study notes that a person may as well become adept at managing the effects that both negative and positive have on them because gossip is not going to stop. Positive and negative gossip was viewed as extremely relevant to the recipient of the gossip regardless of their sex or goal orientation status. Possibly people evolved to learn about themselves from gossip.
The researchers examined the response of men and women to positive and negative gossip about another person. The study also involved an evaluation of a fictitious job description that presented gossip about another individual’s performance. The study used the term performance goal as a term describing a person that must outperform all others. A person that strives to excel by learning skills is considered to have a mastery goal mind-set as defined by the research.
