Individ. A pattern of positive behavior and attitude leads to a positive personality, marked by positive personality traits. People want to be seen as being in the know when it comes to the latest gossip about others. This activity indicated the subjects responded to the gossip and its insight. Psychol. Most start with the same basic idea: Gossip is a conversation between two people that concerns a third person who is not present. Sign up for our weekly newsletters and get: By signing in, you agree to our Terms and Conditions Manag. Decoding the narcissismpopularity link at zero acquaintance. Pers. More specifically, it has been suggested and empirically shown that, at the dyadic level, sharing gossip is associated with friendship (Grosser et al., 2010; Watson, 2011; Ellwardt et al., 2012b) and even leads to the development of friendships (Ellwardt et al., 2012b; see also Bosson et al., 2006). No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. doi: 10.1177/1059601109360391. This allowed researchers to unobtrusively listen in on, and analyze, the contents of participants' daily conversations. A proud woman born to a highly respected Southern family, Miss Emily seems frozen in the past, bearing herself aristocratically even when she is impoverished after her controlling father's death. The Dark Triad of personality: a 10 year review. The German Version of the Revised Motives to Gossip Questionnaire In unserem privaten Alltag kommt es hufig vor, dass wir ber eine dritte Person sprechen, die nicht anwesend ist. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2007.00665.x, Lyons, M. T., and Hughes, S. (2015). Why people gossip: an empirical analysis of social motives, antecedents, and consequences. Psychol. Pers. gossip with humour and laughter is the 'best' kind of gossip, in the sense that it is merely orientated to entertainment and thus it is free of 'pettiness' and 'viciousness', because it is incompatible with strong negative emotions: 'People cannot anger us or make us indignant, for instance, at the same time as they make us laugh. doi: 10.1177/0146167214554916, McAndrew, F. T. (2014). 12, 177196. However, most people gossip because gossiping is enjoyable for the sense of power it gives them. Peng et al. Inq. 8. Contrary to that perspective, gossip is considered as a form of passive-aggressive form of workplace bullying in work and organizational literature (e.g., Lewis and Gunn, 2007; Crothers et al., 2009; Privitera and Campbell, 2009). Denken Sie an eine vergangene Situation in Ihrem privaten Alltag, in der Sie Teil eines solchen Gesprchs (ber eine abwesende Person) waren. Individ. Research on organizational features that hinder or facilitate workplace bullying suggest that organizations may vary on enabling structures and processes (e.g., perceived power imbalance, frustration), on motivating structures and processes (e.g., internal competition, reward system), and on precipitating processes (e.g., organizational changes; Salin, 2003; Crothers et al., 2009). Psychol. Bless her heart.. Soc. Such individuals are often in a state of depression and do not know how to enjoy life. Q. Using gossip to negatively influence the reputation of the target person is related to narcissism and Machiavellianism. Fifteen percent of gossip is negative while the remaining 10% is positive or flattering. The gossiper begins by saying something positive about the gossipee. Gossip typically centers on the negative aspects of a persons personal appearance, personal achievements, or personal behaviors. They criticize to nitpick and demean you, not to empower you. David wrote, I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. Appl. When people say your reputation precedes you, its because they have heard gossip about that person, he says, which can be extremely useful. That said, disseminating or not correcting gossip you know to be untrue doesnt have any pro-social benefit. Simply put, your laughter spreads happiness and positive vibes. When you find out the person your friend has a crush on has a bad reputation for cheating, you let your friend know, not to hurt your friend, but as a warning. In a first step, the BF10s of the models with narcissism, Machiavelliansim, and psychopathy as independent variables and the respective gossip motive as dependent variable were of interest (see Table 2; A: BF10). Social media is an ideal platform for gossip. Dif. Conversations about absent third parties appear to be an apparent method to do exactly that. If knowledge is power, gossip is turbocharged power. The Mauchly test effects for sphericity yielded significant effects for motives (2(14) = 52.73, p < 0.001) and for situation*motives (2(14) = 58.71, p < 0.001). Psychonomic Bull. The models predicting information gathering (BF10 = 0.35), protection (BF10 = 0.03), and social enjoyment (BF10 = 0.73) show anecdotal to very strong evidence for the H0 indicating that the data are more likely under the model that assumes no relationship than under the model including the three personality traits. In a second step, we did not look at the models containing all three personality traits but at the models reaching the highest BF10 (see Table 2; B: BF10). 105, 10131037. People whose lives lack meaningful work or transcendent purpose, often seek to find significance by discussing the lives of others. Second, only share a non-personal prayer request if the other person has given you permission to share their need. The malevolent side of human nature: a meta-analysis and critical review of the literature on the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). They also note that gossip tends to be about acquaintances more than celebrities, and typically involves an exchange of social information rather than thoughts about one's physical appearance or achievements. 52, 482486. People also like to gossip because it gives them a sense that they possess secret information about another person, which gives them a sense of power. Donna and her husband planted Crossline Church in in Laguna Hills, CA, in 2005. Scold them a little and you might just have tears streaming down their tiny little faces. 28, 16101619. If you arent from the South, this one might not make sense to you. Psychol. Front. Second, considering that one focus of the study was the association between the gossip motives and the dark triad personality traits, the use of a short measure of the dark triad is questionable. Personality traits reflect people's characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In clear contrast to the bad reputation, gossiping is not mainly driven by malicious reasons. A Harsh Spirit. 27, 169184. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1323-7, Wagenmakers, E. J., Marsman, M., Jamil, T., Ly, A., Verhagen, J., Love, J., et al. Is gossip power? Mischel (1977) argued that behavior in strong situations is based on situational circumstances rather than on the individual's personality. According to standard procedures, missing values were imputed prior to forming scales using the EM method in SPSS 24 (Schafer and Graham, 2002). Therefore, the present study aims to examine whether the bad reputation of gossip is justified by examining reasons to gossip. For instance, in a study conducted by Schwarz and Bless (1992), participants were asked about a specific politician (i.e., Barschel) who was involved in a scandal. Pers. Thirdly, the present study has been conducted as an online study warranting complete anonymity. Dif. doi: 10.1037/a0034431, PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar, Back, M. D., Schmukle, S. C., and Egloff, B. Regression analysis with motives as dependent variables and dark triad personality traits as independent variables (N = 134). Creative Minds Press. 25, 5876. 15. Eur. Focusing on the social functions, that can be understood as not necessarily intended social consequences of gossip behavior, research clearly paints a positive picture of gossip. 34, 10041017. The Bless Your Heart gossip shares juicy pieces of information, but tags on the line, bless his/her heart as a way of appearing compassionate and caring, when, in fact, they are neither compassionate nor caring. (2010). Participants have to consult their autobiographical memory to identify relevant behavioral events, and, in addition, remember in detail the reasons for this behavior (e.g., Sudman et al., 1996). Until that day, shed always thought gossip was simply part of normal conversation. J. Pers. doi: 10.1089/cpb.2009.0025. Rather, a single motive might serve unintentionally different social functions, presumably more than one at once. 54, 93105. Yet our favourite pastime is complete character assassination. How perceptions of gossiper morality are related to gossip content. (2015). Each participant could contribute these points to their group in which case, the points would be doubled and redistributed equally or keep them for themselves. J. Occup. Just another site. They should be self descriptions that are specific about what makes your character stand out. A personality trait describes how a person tends to think, feel, and behave on an ongoing basis. A competitive situation might elicit motives that serve the individual more easily and hazards negative consequences for others. Plus, many introverts draw firm lines around their time, for example, "alone time," "social time," and "work time.". Out of a Bad Heart Gossip arises when something has gone wrong with us at the worshiping core of our beings. Taken together, the preliminary scale consists of 18 items tapping into six different motives, namely information gathering (IG), information validation (IV), relationship building (RB), protection (P), social enjoyment (SE), and negative influence (NI; see Figure 1). Importantly, even individuals that are willing to dismiss commonly accepted social norms, act selfishly, and harm others for their own good appear to use gossip to tune their picture of other humans and themselves and not to harm others. Did you hear how much they paid for it? Gossip and emotion in nursing and health-care organizations. Schwarz, N., and Bless, H. (1992). IVum unsere Gedanken ber die abwesende Person zu vergleichen. London: faber and faber. 8, 7899. A coworker took all the credit for a project you both worked on in a meeting with your boss. However, they do note that the majority of gossip (75%, to be exact) is non-evaluative, or neutral, in. Jonason, P. K., Li, N. P., and Teicher, E. A. But he didnt budge: hed talk about problems, not people. If you're known as a person who gossips and slanders, you're a loser. Robbins, M. L., & Karan, A. Pers. Personal. Soc. A. Mark Travers, Ph.D., is an American psychologist with degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder. (2014). This holds true in two fundamental domains of life, namely the private and the work context.