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posted by martyb on Saturday October 07 2017, @08:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the can-you-believe-it? dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Entropy on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:00AM (1 child)

    by Entropy (4228) on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:00AM (#578698)

    Not really. Not to the same degree. Everyone(almost) talks, and everyone eats but the degree to which we do both determines if we're a gossip, or if we're a glutton.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:35AM (#578776)

    Very accurate assessment.

    Just FYI you fall under the "walking doodie" category ;)