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In this study, 290 heterosexual Canadian students between the ages of 17 and 30 years old completed three questionnaires. One measured how competitive the participants are towards members of the same sex as their own, especially in terms of access to the attention of potential mates. The other questionnaires measured the tendency and likelihood of the participants to gossip about others, the perceived social value of gossip, and whether it is okay to talk about others behind their backs.
It was found that people who were competitive towards members of their own sex had a greater tendency to gossip. They were also more comfortable with the practice than others. Women had a greater tendency to gossip than men, and they also enjoyed it more, and saw more value in participating in such chit-chat. Men were more likely to gossip about the achievements of others. Such talk among women often targeted the physical appearance of another, and was used to share social information. Women also found gossip to have greater social value, which may allow them [to] gather more information about possible competitors in the game of finding a mate. It may also help to hone their ability to gossip in future.
There you have it--it's been scientifically proven.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @09:09PM (13 children)
Of course it's a character flaw, pull someone up on it and they'll look guilty and embarrassed because they know full well that gossip and defamation is poor behaviour.
ie: people with poor self esteem.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday October 07 2017, @09:50PM (4 children)
It's a quick way to raise one's self-esteem by lowering others.
I used to love listening to ladies gossip at work. I got a kick out of hearing fat bitches call other women fat. Truth is there's something wrong with everybody if you look hard enough.
One thing I often wonder about women is, why they wear dress and other clothing with those plunging necklines if they have floppy pancake titties swinging backwards toward their armpits. I mean, shit, get a push-up bra and raise the neckline a little and they'd be golden.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:15PM
Once again, you make perfect sense and appear to be at one with the cosmos, as seen by the interested reader who has consumed an unhealthy and irresponsible amount of alcohol. Cheers!
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday October 08 2017, @10:26AM (1 child)
"Truth is there's something wrong with everybody if you look hard enough."
Wait. WHAT?
But... But not YOU, right Ethanol? That's not including YOU!?!?!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @02:19PM
Exactly! In Ethanol-fueled's case, you don't have to look hard at all.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:43PM
"Alexa, add Floppy Pancake Titties to my shopping list"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:01PM (3 children)
People feel embarrassed or guilty about everything from having sex to just generally having fun. Little of it is a character flaw unless you're a 17th century puritan.
There's plenty of research showing people become couples and stay that way based on a similar levels of intelligence and income almost without exception. Seeing how gossiping been part of a successful mating strategy since the dawn of history, it seems having "poor self-esteem" is beneficial. Though being honest, that trying to reconcile your pulp psychology with science is a losing game. Human mating strategies are well known and quantified by sex studies and statistics. All that psycho-babble is pure nonsense when facing a 50% divorce rate with 95% correlation to changes in income level of one of the partners being the precursor for the divorce. If gossiping and self-esteem play a part in any of it, it's in that 5% margin. The rest is determined by the reality of (perceived) necessity.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:24PM
If you feel guilty about having sex or having fun, then yes, you have self-esteem issues.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @11:16PM (1 child)
No idea what your definition of fun is or who or what you're fucking to feel embarrassed about it? Let's not gossip about it though eh?
It's not the gossip, it's social standing. As the sayings go "those who gossip to you will gossip about you" and (in relation to gossip) "those who care don't matter and those who matter don't care". Engage in gossip, especially malicious gossip - lose your social standing and ultimately your self-esteem because nobody with anything about themselves will want to know you.
So what is the correlation of changes in income to social standing and self-esteem? When I was younger, I was in relationships with rich girls and poor girls. At no time did their income directly impact the outcome of the relationship.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pvanhoof on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:41AM
Maybe that's because when you were younger, you didn't have much to spend money on. Perhaps the differences start to show when the both of you need to make a decision about what car to buy, what house to build or what place to rent, what kitchen to buy and install, what travels to make. A rich girl will want to spend amounts that are much higher than a poor guy could possibly make. She and her family and friends will probably be used to it. And the other way around (in case the guy has more money).
When you are young, the amounts to spend are much lower (a motorcycle, a laptop, meh).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:40PM (1 child)
I don't know if I agree with the low self esteem bit. Some of the most gossipy people I've ever met were confident and sure of themselves. Or, at least seemed that way. Maybe they are exceptions to the rule or something?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:36AM
Well there are different kinds of gossip - it and differs in nature between rural communities, suburbs and cities. The gossip in rural areas can be almost completely benign while in cities it's often malicious and defamatory. At the malicious gossip end of the spectrum, smart people with decent self-esteem tend to see through aggressive smear campaigns. Given enough time those who denigrate others in an attempt to elevate their own social standing or project blame for their own poor behaviour get found out but can cause serious problems for innocent people in the process.
I variously ignore it or call it out and as a result have remained impervious to attacks upon my character by social manipulators. I simply do not care about people's personal lives unless they are in my life, clearly suffering and in need of help. My own personal life could be of no possible concern to people I do not even know. The hell with gossip, it's communal navel gazing and so often a fixation on complete fiction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @10:38AM (1 child)
Being a character flaw and being essential to interpersonal relationships are not mutually exclusive at all. Despite all of the claims otherwise society cannot abide by one hundred percent honest people. Lying can get you far and it is still a character flaw.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 09 2017, @05:35AM
Tell me about it. People don't like honesty, and they make it quite clear in how they actually act vs. what they say. I'm even more of a misfit than being a six foot woman would cause on its own because I tend to be completely honest. Not "blunt/assholeish and calling it honesty" either, I just don't lie very much. I'm not good at it, and too lazy to remember a bunch of lies anyway.
Apparently people really do want smoke blown their asses, but I seem to have been born without a pack of cigarettes. Oh well...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...