Dr Fran Vertue
Gossip is practiced everywhere in the world. Unfortunately, gossip has acquired a decidedly shady reputation. It is seen as unkind, destructive, and morally reprehensible, and most societies have explicit sanctions against gossip. The fact is that all of us produce, hear, or otherwise participate in talking about people who aren’t present because we need to know about other people in order to be able to function effectively.
To categorise all gossip as negative is to misunderstand the essential functions that gossip plays in our everyday lives. What matters more than the positive or negative talk is the function of the talk – what the speaker and listener are trying achieve. The motivation behind the gossip is what needs to be analysed before we make evaluative judgements about the gossip. For example, in order to stay abreast of what is going on in our world, we depend on others to tell us about the people in it. Social conversation without a positive or negative evaluation is essentially just news: who got the job, who is having a baby, which team won the World Cup, who moved in next door, and so on. Gossip is also a very important way for people to develop intimacy as they share information of mutual interest.
Let’s say that you and I both admire Mary – when I tell you about Mary’s latest achievement, I am building our common knowledge, and I am also helping you develop your relationship with Mary. Getting along in the world is hard, and we need all the help we can get from our fellow human beings. We are sometimes confronted by unforeseen risks and problems, but our way can be smoothed and softened by learning about the adventures and misadventures of others. So, gossip also serves to communicate information about rules and guidelines for living. When I tell you about George’s bad behavior at the staff dinner and the unfortunate consequences of his behavior, I may be trying to illustrate the importance of NOT behaving in a particular way if you want to succeed in this company.
It would be naïve to deny that there are also malevolent motivations for gossip. For example, I may be trying to increase my status as a socially sophisticated, important and well-informed member of my peer group, so I am keen to share a piece of gossip – and the more incriminating or derogatory or salacious the information, the better! It is simply true that negative information is more attention-getting than positive information, which has to do with our natural tendency to pay more attention to potentially harmful information than unharmful information. So I will use this “quick and dirty” short-cut in order to be perceived as important, rather than taking the time to build my reputation through more reliable (albeit more time-consuming and less spectacular) methods. Alternatively, I may have a personal vendetta against someone, and would pass on information (true or not) about that person, in order to try and damage their reputation or get them into trouble without having to confront them myself.
The problem with both of these motivations is that there is a risk of the strategy backfiring – I take a considerable risk of being rejected by others unless I am sure that they feel the same way that I do about the target of my gossip. In the long run, it is safer and more effective to build one’s reputation by the development of one’s competencies than by trying to use malicious gossip, and it is safer and more effective to fight one’s battles face to face than trying to get others to do the dirty work.
