Why We Gossip?

Growing up, I was always obsessed with doing the right things. Don’t lie, don’t speak ill of anybody, don't do copy-paste job on assignments, don’t have multiple sex partners and don’t seduce your best friend’s guy. "Not gossiping” was also one of the tenets of self-righteousness I had imposed upon myself. But whenever the girls in my class cornered each other to pour the latest romance gossip into each others' ears, I would find my propriety wall being chipped away by the dagger of curiosity.

No matter how big a Gandhian you are, you have at some point gossiped: listened to stuff about folks that were not present there and let out the cat of the bag about others too. No one likes to be tagged as a serial gossiper, but we all gossip. And hey, it is OK to gossip.

At least so says science.

You know the deal about evolution (look, you’re on a hardcore Darwinian’s blog, so brush up your knowledge!). Gossip, as researchers have discovered, is a survival mechanism humans have developed over time. In his book Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (Harvard University Press, 1996), psychologist Robin Dunbar of the University of Liverpool in England suggested that gossip is a mechanism for bonding social groups together, analogous to the grooming that is found in primate groups.

Primary humans lived in caves in small groups. The resources like land etc. had to be divided among the members of the small groups, so it was essential to keep track of the cheaters and the loyal members. Gossip helped.

Even today, we are mostly interested in gossip about the same-sex individuals. That’s because they are the ones we’ve have to compete with when it comes to finding mates (remember it’s all about producing offsprings!).

All gossip is not good of course. It’s when you don’t do it well enough that you get in trouble.

So how to do the right kind of gossip? Now that’s the million dollar question.

For more on rumor and gossip research, check out the APA site.