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: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @08:36PM (6 children)
This will go over well with the third-wave feminists. /s
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:05PM (3 children)
Well, to be fair, men do the same thing. We have our own terms for it, terms like "locker-room talk" and "cock-blocking."
(Score: 2) by rylyeh on Saturday October 07 2017, @11:59PM
Well frankly, I blame Tom, Dick, and Harry for it. Those F-ing scumbags of festering puss...
{whisper} Hey! Jane's looking over here again - go find out if she likes me!
"a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Entropy on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:00AM (1 child)
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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:35AM
Very accurate assessment.
Just FYI you fall under the "walking doodie" category ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @11:50PM
Nah, they will just mercilessly gossip about the study authors.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:32AM
"This will go over well with the third-wave feminists. /s"
This will go over well with the third-reich feminists.
There, FTFY.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @08:45PM (5 children)
Could have just spread legs.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @09:40PM
What's the real flamebait here, my comment or the submission?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:15PM (1 child)
The instinct is to spread legs for somebody with good DNA and/or for somebody who can provide resources and protection.
Gossip lets a woman set higher standards.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:40PM
...all evaluated on highly superficial observations evaluated near the brain stem, the mechanism having evolved hundreds of millions of years ago. It sucks being a living organism, slave to evolutionary history.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday October 08 2017, @01:34AM (1 child)
I would assume this is one of the factors that women gossip with other women about, the potential slutiness of other women. Which I guess would be of great value for certain men to know about.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 09 2017, @11:46AM
2) Thus sluttiness is probably a plus for some guys. The thing is guys don't need to learn about sluts from women's gossip. The sluts tend to be obvious that's why the other women gossip about them - the sluts are a threat to them.
It's only in more recent millennia where the guy has to provide for the kids (previously the women were probably gathering much of the food for the kids) and it's not allowed to kill "your kids" even if they aren't actually yours (see what lions do when they take over a pride)...
(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. I have always been here. ---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?
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(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...
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Saturday October 07 2017, @09:47PM (4 children)
How exactly do they define if a one woman is more competitive than others?
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 4, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday October 07 2017, @09:51PM (3 children)
The "bitch-factor," which is not described in the article.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @02:53AM (2 children)
How does that old saw go, Eth? "A slut will fuck anyone. A bitch will fuck anyone..but you."
I imagine you get that a lot, eh Eth?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 09 2017, @05:38AM (1 child)
Eth is the kind of guy whose hand gets five separate, simultaneous headaches when he tries to whack off. He's got the sort of perpetual virginity field that normally takes a dank basement and a handful of funny dice to set up and maintain.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday October 09 2017, @01:12PM
That's just not fair, Azuma! I'm sure Eth gets plenty of action from Rosie Palm and the five Finger sisters! That's what the C1al1s is for.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Saturday October 07 2017, @10:21PM
The article & summary state that people who feel competitive towards their own sex tend to gossip, with women somewhat more likely to do so than men. That doesn't exactly translate into "women use gossip to compete for a man's attention."
It sounds like the study & conclusion also sound like they weren't terribly well designed:
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:13AM (9 children)
In my 40+ years of working in the real world, with respect to gossip I understand women are better at it than men, but I've known a couple male gossips who could put the women to shame. One is a friend of mine. Back around 2000 I shared an office with him, I could not believe the number of women he talked into getting naked on webcam. He fucking knew everything going on in the company. Who was fucking who, who hated who, and who was in danger of getting laid off. Contacted him a couple years ago looking for a job, he bought me lunch on his campus, and sitting in the open area he would point to women and say she was dating him, she was married and fucking that other guy, it was amazing. He knew details about pretty much every woman we saw (over a hundred, it was astounding). But he did not use his knowledge for evil, he just knew.
In about 2004 I worked with a guy that was kinda the same but not as good. I would put him in the 1% smartest people I've ever worked with. He did not need gossip to get ahead, his ability was clear. He was my office mate. Somehow this dude could not only convert a Windows device driver, where he'd been a Windows guy for 10 years, into a Linux device driver, which he'd found 4 months ago, into a driver that worked in both ecosystems. He could read people like I've always wished I could. Whenever something happened in that startup he would say "so and so just won a battle", and a couple months later turned out he was right.
Me? I can't read people. I've survived enough layoffs (and died in a couple) to recognize the signs. But I absolutely cannot read people, nor get gossip.
Trump's Grave will be the world's most popular open air toilet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @12:58AM (8 children)
Nope, psychopath!
INTJ
Of course you can; study body language, review the MBTI types and read through the DSM. A word of warning, if dangerous people think you read them then you've just made yourself a target. Good luck ;)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday October 08 2017, @02:05AM
Methinks you learned your psychology skills from watching Silence of the Lambs.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:21AM (5 children)
I am a textbook INFJ. I haaaaaaate gossip, which did not help in middle school, because that means you become the subject of gossip. I've also been able to "read people" to a frightening degree since childhood, to the point of having lost at least half a dozen potential friends with a "How do you know that? You cannot possibly know that" and a few quick steps backwards. It's not a gift. It's a curse.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Monday October 09 2017, @07:03PM (4 children)
I think you're the only other INFJ I've met online. (Met one IRL also). I'd like to say, "We're the rarest!" but in evolutionary terms, what that really means is, "We're the least successful!"
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 09 2017, @08:17PM (3 children)
You do not act or feel like an INFJ at all. I would have pegged you as one of the ST types, either ISTP or ISTJ. Male INFJs are very very rare and I'm told most of them are clergy or counselors...in any case, much more service-oriented than you appear to be.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Monday October 09 2017, @10:19PM (1 child)
You have no idea how many hours a week I spend volunteering (It's only 7 hours on average these days), how much money I donate to homeless shelters (only $1/day), or how much equipment and time I give to my community trade school (this is actually in the thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours over the past couple years).
Or, interestingly enough, that just a couple of days ago I helped a DACA recipient clean up a resume, took them to Kinkos and paid for professional copies to be made (their printer at home striped the lettering due to it being thrown out of a window during a fight sometime in the past, apparently), then drove them around to different places (blasting the AC, you do not want to look sweaty when you hand your resume to the manager) to apply for work to save them the time, stress, and money it would have taken for public transportation or Uber. (They actually got a job offer the next day and accepted.) Said DACA recipient is fully aware that I voted for Trump, too - they've seen my MAGA hat. I'm not sure what your source is for gender frequency, but anecdotally I would agree that male INFJs are hopelessly rare (unsuccessful) as I have only met two INFJs in person, both were female, and I have not ever noticed the kind of behavior one would expect from one in any men I've interacted with.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 09 2017, @10:27PM
Voting Trump doesn't square with the rest of that. You are doing things that go against everything the administration you voted for stands for. So there is either some kind of mental disconnect here, or you've got a bad case of self-serving compartmentalizing going on.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Monday October 09 2017, @10:21PM
*Correction to my first comment
I actually remembered that I had met a second INFJ at a self-help group some years back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:57AM
Yes, rely on the social 'sciences' (MBTI isn't even all that well-regarded in the social 'sciences' anyway) so you can pretend to be able to understand other people.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Sunday October 08 2017, @01:48AM (2 children)
You gossip to become better at gossiping so that you can gossip even more in the future. Is there some kind of gossip Olympics I just never heard about?
While gossip might be the social glue that bind people together, or put them in competition, it is still a really unattractive feature. So while being a gossiping bitch might be a useful and essential skill, for women, it's also a massive turnoff (for me, as a man).
(Score: 3, Funny) by rylyeh on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:51AM
You didn't hear this from me, but...
"a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."
(Score: 2) by snufu on Monday October 09 2017, @03:32AM
"It is a highly evolved social skill essential for interpersonal relationships, rather than a flaw of character."
There are many human traits inherited from our pre-civilized ancestors that we now suppress because they are no longer necessary or detrimental to modern social cooperation. Gossip does far more bad than good.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:36AM
in the du-uhh department, things get duh-uh-uuh-eir
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:46AM (1 child)
we settled our irreconcilable differences. the men are moving on to Mars.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:15AM
I agree it's a wonder men and women stick together after doing the nasty at all. Yes I'm a man, why are you asking? ;)