Study explores nuances
of who gossips, and what they gossip about
University of
California - Riverside
A new UC Riverside
study asserts that women don't engage in "tear-down" gossip any more
than men, and lower income people don't gossip more than their more well-to-do
counterparts. It also holds younger people are more likely to gossip negatively than their older counterparts.
It's the first-ever study to dig deep into who gossips the most, what topics they gossip about, and how often people gossip -- 52 minutes a day on average.
"There is a surprising dearth of information about who gossips and how, given public interest and opinion on the subject," said Megan Robbins, an assistant psychology professor who led the study along with Alexander Karan, a graduate student in her lab.
If you're going to
look at gossip like an academic, remove the value judgment we assign to the
word. Gossip, in the academic's view, is not bad. It's simply talking about
someone who isn't present. That talk could be positive, neutral, or negative.
"With that
definition, it would be hard to think of a person who never gossips because
that would mean the only time they mention someone is in their presence,"
Robbins said. "They could never talk about a celebrity unless the
celebrity was present for the conversation; they would only mention any detail
about anyone else if they are present."
"Not only would
this be difficult, but it would probably seem strange to people they interact
with."
In the research,
Robbins and Karan looked at data from 467 people -- 269 women, 198 men -- who
participated in one of five studies. Participants were 18 to 58 years old.
Participants wore a
portable listening device Robbins employs in her research called the
Electronically Activated Recorder, or EAR. The EAR samples what people say
throughout the day; about 10 percent of their conversation is recorded, then
analyzed by research assistants.
The research
assistants counted conversation as gossip if it was about someone not present.
In all, there were 4,003 instances of gossip. They then filtered the gossip
into three categories: positive, negative, or neutral.
The assistants further
coded the gossip depending on whether it was about a celebrity or acquaintance;
the topic; and the gender of the conversation partner.
Among the results:
- Younger people engage in more negative gossip than older adults. There was no correlation with overall frequency of gossip when all three categories were combined.
- About 14 percent of participants' conversations were gossip, or just under an hour in 16 waking hours
- Almost three-fourths of gossip was neutral. Negative gossip (604 instances) was twice as prevalent as positive (376)
- Gossip overwhelmingly was about an acquaintance and not a celebrity, with a comparison of 3,292 samples vs. 369
- Extraverts gossip far more frequently than introverts, across all three types of gossip
- Women gossip more than men, but only in neutral, information-sharing, gossip
- Poorer, less education people don't gossip more than wealthier, better-educated people. This runs contrary to assertions found in popular "best habits of the rich" books.
A final result?
Everyone gossips. "Gossip is ubiquitous," the study concludes.
