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Can gossip be a good thing?
Can gossip be a good thing?
How many times have you told yourself that gossip is one of those things you'd rather not do or have others engage in, but you find yourself drawn in anyway? If you're like the rest of us, gossip appears to have an irritable pull and before you know it, you're involved.
New research on the topic, however, may offer some insights into why we engage in gossip and how it can actually be beneficial for us. One prior study that appears in the literature in Human Nature in 1997 indicated that up to 65% of what we talk about each day is gossip. It would seem that it fills quite a bit of our time and researchers suggest you make a distinction between gossip and rumor. Gossip, theoretically, is based on facts while rumor is mere speculation.
The latest belief in the psychological community is that gossip serves as a means of bonding with others and here's where gossip and the water cooler go together. Getting a cold drink may also mean an opportunity to interact with our fellow employees and do a bit of de-stressing through breaking out of our work mindset for a few brief moments. Just like the coffee break helps us to renew our energy level and cut the stress that may have been building up, a few minutes of levity around the water cooler may be just what the doctor ordered.
Gossip can also help us to understand the rules of the business in which we find ourselves and the mores of the corporate culture. So, it's bonding and learning how to fit in. The bonding occurs by helping us establish trust because of this sharing of information, however frivolous it seems. One psychologist at the University of Liverpool, believes that gossip is like social grooming in the animal kingdom which helps them form social alliances.
So, when a day is particularly stressful, you may have the urge to reach out and gossip to someone as a means of shedding some of that stress, if only for 15 minutes.
Related Topics: A New Age of Celebrity Worship, Fear of Public Speaking Hardwired
Technorati Tags: gossip, stress relief
How many times have you told yourself that gossip is one of those things you'd rather not do or have others engage in, but you find yourself drawn in anyway? If you're like the rest of us, gossip appears to have an irritable pull and before you know it, you're involved.
New research on the topic, however, may offer some insights into why we engage in gossip and how it can actually be beneficial for us. One prior study that appears in the literature in Human Nature in 1997 indicated that up to 65% of what we talk about each day is gossip. It would seem that it fills quite a bit of our time and researchers suggest you make a distinction between gossip and rumor. Gossip, theoretically, is based on facts while rumor is mere speculation.
The latest belief in the psychological community is that gossip serves as a means of bonding with others and here's where gossip and the water cooler go together. Getting a cold drink may also mean an opportunity to interact with our fellow employees and do a bit of de-stressing through breaking out of our work mindset for a few brief moments. Just like the coffee break helps us to renew our energy level and cut the stress that may have been building up, a few minutes of levity around the water cooler may be just what the doctor ordered.
Gossip can also help us to understand the rules of the business in which we find ourselves and the mores of the corporate culture. So, it's bonding and learning how to fit in. The bonding occurs by helping us establish trust because of this sharing of information, however frivolous it seems. One psychologist at the University of Liverpool, believes that gossip is like social grooming in the animal kingdom which helps them form social alliances.
So, when a day is particularly stressful, you may have the urge to reach out and gossip to someone as a means of shedding some of that stress, if only for 15 minutes.
Related Topics: A New Age of Celebrity Worship, Fear of Public Speaking Hardwired
Technorati Tags: gossip, stress relief
