An Irish university study found that gossip encourages people to be more generous.
Word!!!!
The study, published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, concluded: “It would appear that the threat of gossip only serves to promote generous behaviour when people are given the opportunity to enhance their reputation.”
Uhm, yeah, whatever that means!
In the experiment, they asked 72 college students to divide 10 tokens representing lottery tickets between themselves and a second person in whatever way they wanted.
People who knew that they would be ‘talked about’ gave more generously.
So what if it’s self serving? Better to have some sharing than none at all!
The report also highlights previous studies that have showed that gossip also serves to help people build relationships and should be seen as a positive social skill. BUT, it is only when people are bad at it that it becomes a problem.
No problems here, then! We’re good!