How Gossip Rules the World: Three Hypotheses 1

Abstract

The recent surge in research interest about gossip can be attributed, at least in part, to the possibility that this activity underlies two of the unique features of human society, when compared to those of all other social vertebrates, their scale and their complexity. Two hypotheses have emerged which touch on these features, respectively that gossip supports exceptional levels of sociability, and that it operates as a form of social control ensuring exceptional levels of cooperation. Each of these hypotheses is critically examined before considering a third and relatively neglected possibility, namely that the principle significance of gossip in social life is that it supports prediction about the future behavior of others.

Keywords

gossip reputation sociability cooperation social control psychometrics personality

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Axelrod

(1984). The evolution of cooperation. Basic Books.

Beersma

van Kleef

G. A.

(2011). How the grapevine keeps you in line: Gossip increases contributions to the group. Psychological and Personality Science, 2(6), 642–649. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550611405073

Ben-Ze’ev

(1994). The vindication of gossip. In Goodman

R. F.

Ben-Ze’ev

(Eds.), Good gossip (pp. 11–24). University Press of Kansas.

Berger

Grüne

(2016). On the stability of cooperation under indirect reciprocity in first order information. Games and Economic Behavior, 98, 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2016.05.003

Bird

D. W.

Bird

R. B.

Codding

B. F.

Zeanah

D. W.

(2019). Variability in the organization and size of hunter-gatherer groups: Foragers do not live in small-scale societies. Journal of Human Evolution, 131, 96–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.005

Boissevain

(1974). Friends of friends: Networks, manipulators, coalitions. Blackwell.

Bolton

Katok

Okenfels

(2005). Cooperation among strangers with limited information about reputation. Journal of Public Economics, 89(8), 1457–1468. https://doi.org/10.2139/22rn.673408

Boyd

Richerson

P. J.

(1989). The evolution of indirect reciprocity. Social Networks, 11(3), 213–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(89)90003-8

Burt

R. S.

(2001). Bandwidth and echo: Trust, information, and gossip in social networks. In Rauch

J. E.

Casella

(Eds.), Networks and markets (pp. 37–84). Russell Sage Foundation.

10.

Burt

R. S.

(2005). Brokerage and closure: An introduction to social capital. Oxford University Press.

11.

Burt

R. S.

Knez

(1995). Kinds of third-party effects on trust. Rationality and Society, 7(3), 255–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043463195007003003

12.

Coleman

(1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94(1), S95–S120. https://doi.org/10.1086/228943

13.

Columbus

Molho

Righetti

Balliet

(2021). Interdependence and cooperation in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(3), 626–650. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000253

14.

Connelly

B. S.

McAbee

S. T.

J. S.

Jung

C. W.

(2022). A multi-rater perspective on personality and performance: An empirical examination of the trait-reputation-identity model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(8), 1352–1368. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000732

15.

Connelly

B. S.

Ones

D. S.

(2010). An other perspective on personality: Meta-analytic integration of observers’ accuracy and predictive validity. Psychological Bulletin, 136(6), 1092–1122. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021212

16.

de Sola Pool

Kochen

(1978). Contacts and influence. Social Networks, 1(1), 5–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(78)90011-4

17.

DiFonzo

Bordia

(2007). Rumor psychology: Social and organizational approaches. American Psychological Association.

18.

Dores Cruz

T. D.

Neiper

A. S.

Testori

Martinescu

Beersma

(2021a). An integrative definition and framework to study gossip. Group and Organization Management, 46(2), 252–285. https://doi.org/10.1098/1059601121992887

19.

Dores Cruz

T. D.

van de Lee

Bechtoldt

N. M.

Beersma

(2024). Nasty and noble notes: Interdependence structures drive self-serving gossip. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 50(1), 1596–1612. https://doi.org/10.1177/014616722231171054

20.

Dores Cruz

T. D.

van der Lee

Beersma

(2021b). Gossip about coronavirus: Infection status and norm adherence shape social responses. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 24(4), 658–679. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430221991232

21.

Dunbar

R. I. M.

(1993). Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16(4), 681–735. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00032325

22.

Dunbar

R. I. M.

(2004). Gossip in evolutionary perspective. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.100

23.

Dunbar

R. I. M.

Duncan

N. D. C.

Marriott

(1997). Human conversational behaviour. Human Nature, 8(3), 231–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02912493

24.

Dunbar

R. I. M.

Duncan

N. D. C.

Nettle

(1995). Size and structure of freely forming groups. Human Nature, 6(1), 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734136

25.

Eder

Enke

J. L.

(1991). The structure of gossip: Opportunities and constraints on collective expression among adolescents. American Sociological Review, 56(4), 494–508. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096270

26.

Ellwardt

Steglich

Wittek

(2012). The co-evolution of gossip and friendship in workplace social networks. Social Networks, 34(4), 623–633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2012.07.002

27.

Emler

(1990). A social psychology of reputation. European Review of Social Psychology, 1, 171–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/1479779108401861

28.

Emler

(2000). Social structures and individual lives: Effects of participation in the social institutions of family, education, and work. In Bynner

Silbereisen

R. K.

(Eds.), Adversity and challenge in the life course in England and the new Germany (pp. 52–84). Macmillian.

29.

Emler

(2001). Gossiping. In Giles

Robinson

W. P.

(Eds.), The new handbook of language and social psychology (pp. 317–338). Wiley.

30.

Emler

(2019). Human sociality and psychological foundations. In Giardini

Wittek

(Eds.), The Oxford handbook of gossip and reputation (pp. 173–192). Oxford University Press.

31.

Emler

Reicher

(1995). Adolescence and delinquency: The collective management of reputation. Blackwell.

32.

Enquist

Leimar

(1993). The evolution of cooperation in mobile organisms. Animal Behavior, 45(4), 747–757. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1993.1089

33.

Fehr

Gächter

(2002). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415(6868), 137–140. https://doi.org/10.1038/415137a

34.

Feinberg

Willer

Schultz

(2014). Gossip and ostracism promote cooperation in groups. Psychological Science, 25(3), 656–664. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613510184

35.

Feinberg

Willer

Stellar

Keltner

(2012). The virtues of gossip: Reputational information sharing as prosocial behaviour. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(5), 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026650

36.

Fine

(1986). The social organisation of adolescent gossip: The rhetoric of moral education. In Cook-Gumpertz

Corsaro

Streeck

(Eds.), Children’s worlds and children’s language (pp. 405–423). Mouton de Gruyter.

37.

Fischer

(1984). To dwell among friends: Personal networks in town and city. University of Chicago Press.

38.

Fisher

Shaw

Worth

Smith

Reeve

(2010). How do we view those who derogate? Perceptions of female competitor derogators. Journal of Social, Evolutionary and Cultural Psychology, 4(4), 265–267. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0099284

39.

Foster

E. K.

(2004). Research on gossip: Taxonomy, methods, and future directions. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 78–99. https://doi.org/https:/doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.78

40.

Freeman

H. D.

Gosling

S. D.

(2010). Personality in nonhuman primates: A review and evaluation of past research. American Journal of Primatology, 72(8), 653–671. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.20833

41.

Gambetta

(1994). Godfather’s gossip. Archives Européennes de Sociologie, 35(2), 199–223. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003975600006846

42.

Gans

H. J.

(1962). The urban village. Free Press.

43.

Garcia-Fernández

C. M.

Moreno-Moya

Ortega-Ruiz

Romera

E. M.

(2022). Adolescent involvement in cybergossip: Influence on social adjustment, bullying and cyberbullying. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 25, e6. https://doi.org/10.1017/SJP.2022.3

44.

Gaudel

Keser

Muller

(2021). The evolution of morals under indirect reciprocity. Games and Economic Behavior, 126, 251–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2021.01.004

45.

Giardini

Balliet

Power

E. A.

Számadó

Takács

(2021). Four puzzles of reputation-based cooperation: Content, process, honesty, and structure. Human Nature, 33(1), 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09419-3

46.

Gilovich

(1987). Secondhand information and social judgment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 23(1), 59–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(87)90025-4

47.

Gluckman

(1963). Gossip and scandal. Current Anthropology, 6, 281–293.

48.

Granovetter

(1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380. https://doi.org/10.1086/225469

49.

Granovetter

(1985). Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), 481–510. https://doi.org/10.1086/228311

50.

Grosser

T. J.

Lopez-Kidwell

LaBianca

(2010). A social network analysis of positive and negative gossip in organizational life. Group and Organizational Management, 35(2), 177–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601109360391

51.

Harari

Muller

S. R.

Stachl

Wang

Buhner

Renfrow

P. J.

Campbell

A. T.

Gosling

S. D.

(2019). Sensing sociability: Individual differences in young adults’ conversation, calling, texting, and app use behaviors in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(1), 204–228. https://doi.org/10.1G.037/pspp0000245

52.

Hardy

C. l.

van Vugt

(2006). Nice guys finish first: The competitive altruism hypothesis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(10), 1402–1413. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206291006

53.

Huang

(2024). Conceptualizing gossip as a counter discourse: Alternative ways of publicly alleging sexual misconduct in an on-line groupie community. International Journal of Cultural Studies. Advance online. https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779241280291

54.

Hess

N. H.

Hagen

E. H.

(2006). Psychological adaptations for assessing gossip veracity. Human Nature, 17(3), 337–354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-006-101-z

55.

Higgins

E. T.

(1992). Achieving shared reality in the communication game: A social action that creates meaning. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 11(3), 107–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X92113001

56.

Higgins

E. T.

Rholes

W. S.

(1987). Saying is believing: Effects of message modification on memory and liking for the person observed. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14(4), 363–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2007.06.003

57.

Hogan

. (1982). A socioanalytic theory of personality. In Nebraska symposium on motivation (pp 55–89). University of Nebraska Press.

58.

Hogan

(2005). In defense of personality measurement: New wine for old whiners. Human Performance, 18(4), 331–341. https://doi.org/http://dox.https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1804-1

59.

Hogan

Blickle

(2013). Socioanalytic theory. In Christiansen

N. D.

Tett

R. P.

(Eds.), Handbook of personality at work (pp. 53–70). Routledge.

60.

Humphrey

(1976). The social function of the intellect. In Bateson

P. P. G.

Hinde

(Eds.), Growing points in ethology (pp. 303–317). Cambridge University Press.

61.

Imada

Hopthrow

Abrams

(2021). The role of positive and negative gossip in promoting prosocial behavior. Evolutionary Behavioral Science, 15(3), 285–291. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000218

62.

Kenny

(1994). Interpersonal perception: A social relations analysis. Guilford Press.

63.

Koski

S. E.

(2014). Broader horizons for animal personality research. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2014.00070

64.

Leimar

Hammerstein

(2001). Evolution of cooperation through indirect reciprocity. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 268(1468), 745–753. https://doi.org/10.1089/rspb.2000.1573

65.

Lumley

F. E.

(1925). Means of social control. Century.

66.

Malinowski

(1923). The problem of meaning in primitive languages. In Ogden

C. K.

Richards

I. A.

(Eds.), The meaning of meaning (pp. 296–336). Routledge & Keegan Paul.

67.

Martinescu

Peters

Beersma

(2022). What do we talk about when we talk about others? Evidence for the primacy of the horizontal dimension of evaluation in workplace gossip. International Review of Social Psychology, 55(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.687

68.

Merry

S. E.

(1984). Rethinking gossip and scandal. In Black

(Ed.), Towards a general theory of social control (Vol. 1, pp. 271–302). Academic Press.

69.

Milinski

(2019). Gossip and reputation in social dilemmas. In Giardini

Wittek

(Eds.), Oxford Handbook of gossip and reputation (pp. 193–213). OUP. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190494087.013.11

70.

Nieper

A. S.

Beersma

Dijkstra

M. T. M.

van Kleef

G. A.

(2022). When and why does gossip increase prosocial behavior? Current Opinion in Psychology, 44, 315–320. https://doi.org/10.1016/coppsyc.2021.10.009

71.

Noon

Delbridge

(1993). News from behind my hand: Gossip in organizations. Organization Studies, 14(1), 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084069301400103

72.

Nowak

Sigmund

(1998). Evolution of indirect reciprocity by image scoring. Nature, 393, 573–577. https://doi.org/10.1038/31225

73.

Nowak

Sigmund

(2005). Evolution of indirect reciprocity. Nature, 437(6685), 1291–1298. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.04131

74.

I. S.

Wang

Mount

(2011). Validity of observer ratings of the five-factor model of personality traits: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 762–773. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021832

75.

Paine

(1967). What is gossip about? An alternative hypothesis. Man, 2(2), 278–285. https://doi.org/10.2307/2799493

76.

Panchanathan

Boyd

(2004). Indirect reciprocity can stabilize cooperation without the second-order free-rider problem. Nature, 432, 499–502. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature0297

77.

Peperkoorn

L. S.

Becker

D. V.

Balliet

Columbus

Molho

van Lange

P. A. M.

(2020). The prevalence of dyads in social life. PLos ONE, 15(12), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journalhttps://doi.org/,pone.924418

78.

Peters

Fonseca

M. A.

(2020). Truth, lies, and gossip. Psychological Science, 31(6), 702–714. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2123

79.

Peters

Kashima

(2015). Bad habit or social good: How perceptions of gossiper morality are related to gossip content. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(6), 784–798. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2123

80.

Piazza

Bering

(2008). Concerns about reputation via gossip promote generous allocations in an economic game. Evolution & Human Behavior, 29(3), 172–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.12.002

81.

Roberts

(1998). Competitive altruism: From reciprocity to the handicap principle. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B: Biological Sciences, 265(1394), 427–431. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1998.0312

82.

Robins

M. L.

Karan

(2020). Who gossips and how in everyday life? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(2), 185–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506198337000

83.

Ross

E. A.

(1901). Social control: A survey of the foundations of order. Macmillan.

84.

Seabright

(2004). The company of strangers: A natural history of economic life. Princeton University Press.

85.

Simpson

Willer

(2008). Altruism and indirect reciprocity: The interaction of person and situation in prosocial behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/01902250807100106

86.

Smith

(2014). Evil acts and malicious gossip: A multiagent model of the effects of gossip in socially distributed person perception. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18(4), 311–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868314530515

87.

Sommerfeld

R. D.

Krambeck

H. J.

Semmann

Milinski

(2007). Gossip as an alternative for direct observation in games of indirect reciprocity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(44), 17435–17440. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0704598104

88.

Stattin

Russo

(2023). The political reputation of students in upper secondary school: Consequences for their collective political activities four years later. Political Psychology, 44(4), 693–708. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12879

89.

Tomasello

(2014). The ultra-social animal. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(3), 187–194. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2015

90.

Trivers

(1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quarterly Review of Biology, 46(1), 35–57. https://doi.org/10.1086/406755

91.

Turchin

(2016). Ultra society: How 10,000 years of war made humans the greatest cooperators on earth. Beresta Books.

92.

van Iterson

Waddington

Michelson

(2010). Breaking the silence: The role of gossip in organizational culture. In Ashkansay

N. M.

Wilderom

C. P. M.

Petersen

M. F.

(Eds.), Handbook of organizational culture (2nd ed., pp. 375–392). Sage.

93.

Walquist

E. M.

Byrd

Roberto

D. P.

McDonald

M. M.

(2024). Sexual assault gossip: Who we share with and why? Archives of Sexual Behavior. 18 Nov. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-024-0345-7

94.

Wax

Rodriguez

W. A.

Ascenio

(2022). Spilling tea at the water cooler:A meta-analysis of the literature on workplace gossip. Organizational Psychology Review, 12(4), 453–506. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866221112383

95.

Wedekind

Milinski

(2000). Cooperation through image scoring in humans. Science, 288(5467), 850–852. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.288.5467.850

96.

Wellman

(1978). The community question: The intimate networks of east Yorkers. American Journal of Sociology, 84(5), 1201–1231. https://doi.org/10.1086/226906

97.

Wilson

D. S.

Wilzynski

Wells

Weiser

(2000). Gossip and other components of language as group-level adaptations. In Hayes

Huber

(Eds.), The evolution of cognition (pp. 347–365). MIT Press.

98.

Wirth

(1938). Urbanism as a way of life. American Journal of Sociology, 44(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1086/217913

99.

Balliet

van Lange

P. A. M.

(2015). When does gossip promote generosity? Indirect reciprocity under the shadow of the future. Psychological and Personality Science, 6(8), 923–930. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550615595272

100.

Balliet

van Lange

P. A. M.

(2016). Reputation management: Why and how gossip enhances generosity. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37(3), 193–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.11.001

101.

Young

Wilmott

(1957). Family and kinship in East London. Penguin.