How gossip has made us human

It’s true that Filipinos love to gossip, but it’s not just them. Westerners also spend a lot of time gossiping. The research that Prof. Megan Robbins, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, has just completed, shows that we spend on average 52 minutes a day talking about other people. And it’s actually likely to be more, because scientists didn’t take into account the time we spend writing about friends on social media.

However, psychologists want us to steer clear of punishing people for talking about others. In their opinion, gossiping has many positive effects: it strengthens social ties and allows us to gain useful information quickly and without much effort. It’s the same today as it was thousands of years ago.

The development of speech

Our ancestors worked together, because only together could they fend off enemies, hunt animals and survive in difficult conditions. They had to know where to hide in a sudden downpour, as well as where to go for good hunting and to find berries in the forest. But even more important than this was information on who could be trusted in the group, who was willing to help, who couldn’t be counted on, who was sleeping with whom, and who had just had a serious quarrel with whom. When people lived in small groups, everyone knew everything about everybody else.

Over time, as communities began to grow, trouble emerged. There wasn’t enough time and opportunity to build close relationships with everyone in the community. It was impossible to get information about other members of the group directly, e.g. by talking to everyone. It would have taken a huge amount of time for everyone in the group to check for themselves what everybody else was like. This is when gossip proved to be useful. All a person had to do was talk to a few well-informed people, and everything became clear. They could discover who was trustworthy, who was a cheater, and who might best suit them as a partner. So, it was on the basis of gossip that friendships and alliances were created and families were started.

In his best-selling book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari argues that the skill of gossiping is part of what makes us human and that has enabled us to take over the world. He reckons that gossiping is energy-efficient. Passing on information about others has helped people imagine what might happen to them in the future. Prof. Robin Dunbar, evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Oxford, is of the same opinion. According to him, people who gossip fare better in life.

There are even more upsides to talking about others. In his book Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language, Prof. Dunbar argues that gossiping became an element that bonded the group, and that it accelerated or even enabled the development of speech. When people started exchanging views about others, they had to create new words and expand their sentences. They continually enriched the language to express feelings and opinions about those they were gossiping about.

From the life of celebrities

Let’s return to modern times and to the research that scientists at the University of California, Riverside, conducted. They used a portable EAR device – an electronically activated recorder – which periodically records fragments of conversations. This device enabled gossip to be thoroughly analyzed, and the time devoted to the activity to be measured. Although there’s no doubt that talking about others is a common pastime, the phenomenon had not previously been much researched.

The EAR devices were given to 467 volunteers – 269 women and 198 men aged 18 to 58 years old. After several days, the scientists analyzed the recordings, choosing the remarks they considered to be gossip and dividing them into three categories: positive, negative and neutral. They also distinguished between conversations about celebrities and gossip about friends. They were surprised to find that not much time was spent gossiping about famous people – this represented just 10 percent of the conversations.

Most of the gossip was about family members, friends, colleagues and neighbors. Almost three-quarters of the conversations contained neutral information, and there were twice as many negative comments about other people as positive ones. Over 20 years ago, when a similar but less precise study was conducted by Prof. Dunbar (and published in Human Nature), we were less negative about other people. At that time, only three to four percent of conversations contained bad opinions about friends or family.

The scientists also discovered that people with higher incomes and a better education are just as eager to talk about others as those with low incomes. And that young people are more willing to discuss the alleged vices of others than are the elderly – and do so more often. It’s only with age that we prefer to exchange neutral information.

A weapon against rivals

Another conclusion that has been reached by the scientists from the University of California, Riverside is that, contrary to popular belief, women don’t actually gossip more than men. While women exchange neutral facts about the lives of loved ones more often – information about weddings, births and achievements at school, for example – men take the lead when it comes to assessing these events, especially critically. Usually, they do it just for pleasure. Previous research has shown that during such conversations, men often boast, and they generally view such conversations as an exchange of information or maintaining contact rather gossiping.

Women, on the other hand, don’t hide the fact that they gossip, although they lower their voices while doing so. They also imitate the people they’re gossiping about and exchange all sorts of details about their lives. Their gossip is funny and anecdotal. They also tend to be much cleverer than men. According to a study by Tania Reynolds, a PhD student at the Department of Psychology at Florida State University, women use gossip as a weapon in fighting over men. She found that women gossip about their friends in the same way that teenage girls do. They do it to destroy the reputation of their rivals and gain an advantage over them. They criticize their clothing, behavior and relationships with loved ones. They gossip when another woman wants to steal their partner, but also when they want to eliminate women who had no intention of competing with them for a man but have the advantage of being physically attractive or dressing provocatively. Some women may act as though they disapprove of such gossip, but in fact, this may allow them to spread gossip about another woman without the risk of being seen negatively.

Reynolds made an interesting observation when she discussed her sex life as part of the study. During such interviews, she first dressed elegantly, then a second time provocatively – with a low neckline, tight blouse and short skirt. When she wore a sexy outfit, information about her intimate experiences was much more willingly and quickly discussed and spread among other participants of the study than when she dressed modestly – wearing a blouse buttoned up to the neck and a long skirt. When dressed in a way that was seen as being provocative, she was perceived as someone who was promiscuous and untrustworthy.

The power of words

All of this gossip, regardless of how it was presented, strongly influenced the reputation of the women being talked about. It made it more difficult for them not only to get a partner, but also to establish friendships or good relationships at work. “People attach more importance to negative information about someone. They’re convinced that such an opinion speaks more about the person than flattering comments,” said Tania Reynolds. This has always been the case, but today, in the age of social media, gossip becomes particularly important. It can easily be used to bring someone down, even someone we had no idea existed.

People believe gossip, mainly because it comes from people they know. They trustfully approach an article that a friend shared on Facebook. They don’t check whether it contains true information. This also shows how easy it is to manipulate people using gossip. Even doubtful or unreliable gossip strongly affects us, as psychologists from the Humboldt University of Berlin have shown. Participants in the study received photos of faces of people they didn’t know and were given negative information about them. For example, they were told that the man in a particular photo had “mistreated his student” or that he had “probably mistreated his student.” When the volunteers were assessing a person in a photo, an electroencephalogram (EEG) registered their brain activity. It turned out that irrespective of whether the information about the person whose photo they were viewing was given as certain or doubtful, the respondents reacted equally strongly to it.

“Our research shows that people ignore such terms as ‘allegedly’ or ‘probably,’ and accept uncertain proof as true, and then pass such information on as true,” wrote the authors of the study in the journal Emotion.

“Gossiping shouldn’t, however, be treated as a character flaw, but as a highly developed social skill. Those who don’t know how to gossip have difficulty maintaining relationships,” wrote Frank T. McAndrew of Knox College in The Conversation, a science-promoting website. Sharing gossip with others is a sign of deep trust: if you entrust your, or someone else’s, secrets to someone, that person is unlikely to use this confidential information against you. However, someone who doesn’t gossip, for example in an office, may feel isolated, and may be someone who is not trusted or accepted by others. Just like it was thousands of years ago.

[SŁOWNICZEK]

banned – zakazany

be fined – zostać ukaranym grzywną

repeat offender – recydywista

to steer clear of punishing people – trzymać się z daleka od karania ludzi

ancestor – przodek

fend off an enemy – odpierać atak wroga

a sudden downpour – nagła ulewa

trustworthy – godny zaufania

to reckon – obliczać / kalkulować

upside – zaleta, pozytywna strona

to enrich the language – wzbogacać język

thoroughly analyzed – wnikliwie przeanalizowany

to distinguish – rozróżniać / oddzielać od czegoś

alleged vices – rzekome wady /przywary

contrary to popular belief – wbrew powszechnemu przekonaniu

to boast – przechwalać się

to gain an advantage – zdobyć przewagę

to spread gossip – rozpowiadać plotki

low neckline – głęboki dekolt

promiscuous – rozwiązły

flattering comment – pochlebna uwaga / komplement

to bring someone down – pogrążyć kogoś

doubtful or unreliable gossip – wątpliwa lub niewiarygodna plotka

irrespective of – bez względu na coś

allegedly – rzekomo /przypuszczalnie

Task 1 (Poziom B1)

Read the text and answer the following questions:

1. How is gossiping punished in Binalonan, a small town in the Philippines?

2. What motivated the mayor of the town to introduce a ban on gossip?

3. How much time does the average person spend gossiping?

4. What role did gossip play in the past and how has this changed over time?

5. What experiment did scientists at the University of California carry out and what did they discover?

6. What myth(s) did the scientists dispel about men and women gossiping?

7. What do men and women tend to gossip about?

8. Why do we put our faith in gossip?

9. Why is office gossip not necessarily a bad thing?

Task 2

Watch the video and answer the following questions:

1. What do the girls in the video find “so depressing”?

2. Why haven’t they ordered anything yet?

3. Why is one of them wearing a blue shirt?

4. What do they think about Taylor Swift?

5. What does one of the girls get super excited about?

6. What “unthinkable” thing did the mother of the girl on the left do?

Task 3

Describe the issue presented in the article. Use the expressions listed below. They will help you give structure to the text analysis.

Key words:

gossip

the development of speech

scientists from the University of California

Tania Reynolds’ research

the power of words

Collocations with positive meaning:

thought-out manner

productive activities

well-informed people

thoroughly analyzed

flattering comments

highly developed social skill

deep trust

Collocations with negative meaning:

repeat offenders

difficult conditions

serious quarrel

low incomes

doubtful or unreliable gossip

character flaw

Action verb phrases:

discuss the lives of others

do community service

restrict freedom of speech

strengthen social ties

gain useful information

pass on information about others

destroy the reputation

spread gossip

Record your text analysis on a voice recorder or practice delivering your presentation in a group setting.

Examples:

In Binalonan, a small town in the Philippines, gossip…

Repeat offenders pay approximately…

It’s true that Filipinos love to gossip, but…

Task 4

Translate the sentences below using the suggested word or phrase. (See Key)

(been) W Binalonanie, małym mieście na Filipinach, zakazano plotkowania.

(caught … discussing … fined) Każdy przyłapany na publicznym dyskutowaniu na temat życia innych jest karany grzywną w wysokości 200 pesos (około 15 złotych).

(given … picking) Dostają także trzy godziny pracy społecznej – zbierania śmieci.

(pay … do) Recydywiści płacą około 75 zł i wyrabiają osiem godzin prac społecznych.

(explained … restrict) Burmistrz miasteczka wyjaśnił, że władze nie chcą ograniczać wolności słowa.

(improve) Chcą poprawić jakość życia w okolicy.

You can use your translations in your presentation of the topic (in Task 6).

Task 5

Continue the translation using the suggested word or phrase. Remember: It’s not about translating these sentences perfectly – there are a number of possible ways to translate each sentence. This task aims to teach you TO THINK IN ENGLISH. By working on your translation of a sentence, you can change it to get closer to the sense of the original (see Key).

Władze chcą nakłonić mieszkańców to spend time on produktywnych zajęciach rather than na obgadywaniu znajomych.

Badania, które właśnie zakończyła prof. Megan Robbins, pokazują, że średnio 52 minuty dziennie spędzamy talking about innych ludziach.

And it’s actually likely to be more, ponieważ naukowcy nie brali pod uwagę czasu, jaki spędzamy na pisaniu o znajomych w mediach społecznościowych.

However, psychologowie chcą, abyśmy steer clear of karania ludzi za mówienie o innych.

Ich zdaniem plotkowanie ma dużo pozytywnych skutków – utrwala więzi społeczne oraz pozwala nam to gain useful information quickly i bez większego wysiłku.

You can use your translations in your presentation of the topic (in Task 6).

Task 6

Now it’s time to put forward your views on the issues. Record your speech on a voice recorder or practice presenting your opinion in a group setting. Consider the issues raised in the text from these viewpoints:

Social: Gossip

Our ancestors gossiped to…

Over time, as communities began to grow…

Scientific: The development of speech

According to scientists, there are many upsides…

People continually enriched the language to…

Personal: The power of words

Words can hurt, though, especially…

Spreading rumors about people can lead to…

Fot. YouTube