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Gossip usually gets a bad rap, but a new study suggests it can do some good: It might discourage some of us from slacking off.
The study reveals that the good form of gossip can protect a group from individuals looking for a free ride, which can be a good thing for co-workers on a project team, students in a study group, or parents serving on a school committee, to name a few.
We tend to think of gossip as the nasty rumors spread behind someone's back or what busybodies blabber about for lack of anything better to say. But it can be more than that, says study author Bianca Beersma, PhD, an associate professor in the department of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. "Gossip is not merely a trivial activity, nor is it always detrimental to group functioning," says Beersma says. "It can serve neutral and even positive functions for groups."
In one experiment, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 221 college students completed a questionnaire rating people's main motives for gossiping.
They found that exchanging and validating information was the most important reason to instigate gossip. Students also rated its negative influence as the least important reason to gossip, and its social enjoyment and group protection ranked second and third, respectively.
As a result, Beersma suggests that malicious gossip may be a relatively infrequent type, but its consequences may be disproportionately large -- such as when gossip is part of bullying someone for a long period of time.
In another experiment, the same college students read a situation describing an employee who was not doing their fair share at work. Study participants were then told to imagine they ran into a friend or a co-worker at a bus stop after leaving their job and asked whether they would gossip about the annoying slacker at work.
Researchers found people were more likely to gossip about a co-worker who was slacking off to another colleague, and the main reason was to protect other group members from this norm-violating behavior.
For example, it's always tempting for some individuals to slack off in a group project, contribute little, and let others do the work. But the study found that one of the motives to gossip was to warn other group members about someone who was looking for a free ride who could hurt the rest of the group's overall performance.
"Our study clearly shows that there is more to gossip than just the malicious aspect," says Beersma. "We are in need of a more nuanced view of gossip to enable organizations to benefit from its positive aspects."
But when it comes to workplace gossip, Beersma says the biggest challenge for an organization and its employees is to distinguish between positive, group-protecting gossip and the malicious, self-interested kind.
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I question the choice of words that the Netherlands study utilizes. In our American culture, at least, "gossip" is a nasty word, with a specific definition... a very negative one.
The foregoing is a quote from the Oxford Dictionary of US usage.
Thus, I believe the Netherlands professor should utilize a different, more accurate label for what she is studying. The locale's usage is essential for a problem-solving theme purporting to be upbeat.
There are other terms, but one of my favorites would be brainstorming. That is a dyed in the wool American term, and the terms exchanged within a brainstorming group who are seeking to solve a problem are based on authentic facts, ideals, and substantiated opinions.
Since this is apparently Dr. Beersman's goal, she needs to get with the program.
And my message to NBC NEWS is to quit publicizing tabloid wording appealing to the worst in our human behavior, that is, harming, hurting, sometimes even destroying other humans with vicious fabrications and lies to make a "holier than thou" attempt to feel better about the gossiper's own self-inadequacies. That is the definition of "gossip."
And that, in my book, is "criminal"... to use an inappropriate word myself... to get the idea across to you.
Gossip usually preys on the weakest and least conforming of anyone inside (or outside) the gossiping group. It favors conformity over individuality, lies over the truth. It's wicked by nature and has no redeeming social value.
Peer pressure applied directly to the slacker in the group is not the same as spreading behind-their-back gossip. Most people are not going to work harder for a two-faced, self-absorbed Alpha leading a group of submissive followers, especially if gossip is their primary motivational and or punishment tool. Sounds like justification for "Mean Girl" mentality as an acceptable social norm.
Sorry, this is yet another half-baked study that draws an unscientific conclusion from tainted observations.
Agreed and agreed. Gossip is often used by the incapable but likable to "assassinate" their rivals.
Ever wonder why so many of your former bosses were complete idiots? They used gossip, cunning, and butt-kissing to float like so many logs to the top.
In the course of my career progression I've been happy to find that the more skilled and rarified my position: the fewer sycophantic gossips I have to deal with. People of ability and maturity either help slackers develop good habits or confront them directly.
Ah, 'butt-kissing' and 'floating logs' in the same sentence. I like your style, Danny!
"Sorry, this is yet another half-baked study that draws an unscientific conclusion from tainted observations."
But at least it didn't cost US taxpayers (I hope)!
There's nothing more entertaining than feeding at the gossip trough. You find out all sorts of interesting information, some good and some bad. Good meaning:"Wow, did you see the presentation, Jane did, it was right on!" So you compliment Jane. Bad meaning: "Oh, that tie John was wearing was covered in grease stains, he is such a slob." You ignore the comment, but check out the tie on the sly. Just don't believe everything you hear and take all of it with a grain of salt. (for you youngster's out there, that means get your facts straight.)
Fun? Miss Copper's Mom? You love to "feed at the gossip trough?" My, listening, and probably engaging in the lies and misinformation that destroy another person, is fun?
You are, I hope, getting therapy.
A few years ago, we had a consultant come into our workplace. In one of our small meetings (there were 6 or 7 of us), the consultant started talking about gossip. I piped up and said (with all seriousness), "No one around here gossips." The conversation ceased with all eyes on me. After a pregnant pause, one guy finally said, "Tom, you don't hear gossip because you don't spread gossip." I guess he was right. Part of it too, was that I always had so much to do that I didn't have time for such nonsense either.
But then, I've never been one to pay much attention to gossip. I've always gone by the adage that "Small minds talk about people; mediocre minds talk about events; great minds talk about ideas." (Or whatever the actual quote is.)
Ideas about people in general can be good fun as well :)
Good post, Tom, and I especially like your quote. Perhaps you may have heard a similar one that I like especially. It's in a play by George Bernard Shaw...
"Some men see things as they are and ask "why? Others dream things that never were and ask, "why not?"
Your quote is unique, of course. I love the comparisons it cites.
Tom. me again. I liked your quote so much I googled it. Let me see if I can give you the link they listed that is actually a concise examination of originator(s)... and eminent folks who quoted it.
Try... www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/great_minds_discuss_ideas_average_minds_discuss_events_small_minds_discuss/
hope this reproduces... :) I think you'd like it.
Tom,I also love that quote.
I've always thought gossip was overly demonized in our culture. In my female-dominated, highly interdependent workplace, our gossip does tend to be of the validating nature: we check rumors about layoffs and terminations, discuss each other's workhabits, ask opinions. "Would you call Dr XYZ for a drop in a patient's lab, or wait until she comes in?" It may not be a valuable tool in all settings, and quite frankly, I think many people, especially men, aren't very socially attuned, but gossip isn't always associated with a "mean girl" mentality.
They got one thing right...when someone "threatens the norm" and sometimes that norm needs threatened. Co workers can settle into habits that monopolize an office to the point that employee turnover becomes frequent and constant, where the old "norm" stay in power will usually ruin a work environment and block all creativity for new ideas and ways to improve efficiency.
Don't accuse folks you call "norm" who prefer to get ahead on their own merits without spreading nasty accusations about others.
Gossip is defined as fabrication. That is another word for "lies" and i don't mean rolling around in bed, hmm, or do I!!!!
I grant the Netherlands scientist ignorance of another language (to her) which utilizes a word she has no basis for an actual translation as she is using it. She could have sited a host of more accurate words (and I suggested one that appealed to me)... but she did not do her homework.
Gross error in one kind of conclusion results in lack of my respect for her "research."
How surprising that this "scholarly" pronouncement didn't originate here in the USA. I have come to believe that we have grown a new culture of mean-spirited and devious workers. In my long experience in "corporate America", I can say emphatically that all I have ever seen come of employee gossip is bad results. Sometimes the topic of the gossip is planted by management to instigate hostility toward a fellow worker and surpress any support for an employ with a legitimate grievance who may look to the coworkers for testimony in an employment practices law suit. It's a corporate form of bullying and should be discouraged.
I never comment on anything.
Um...
Another article on this site justifying gossip. If coworkers need to discuss events in a factual and constructive manner, they should do so. A true professional will refuse to engage in anything else. Or with those who gossip.
We had our slackers at Pac Bell.They all knew who they were and were proud of the fact that they got paid the same as everybody else without working up a sweat.Telling them to their face did not do any good and neither did the gossiping about them.But hey,who has time to gossip when you are doing their workload on top of your own,.
From past experiences gossip has been used by those ambitous co-workers to get feathers in their hat, and favors from the bosses, usually at the expense of more qualified but often time quiet type workers who were then passed over for the promotion.
Becoming bossed by or supervised by less qualified co-workers simply because they did not cozy up or suck up to the bosses, gossiping, and telling every little aspect to the boss. This are usually the ones that get promoted, even while more qualified people are passd over.