Gossip is as old as human beings and studies show that it has a psychological and social origin, so it could be inevitable.
Whoever has not listened to good gossip, cast the first stone! It’s happened to all of us… as much as we try to resist, negative gossip about other people’s lives seduces us, and without meaning to, we end up judging and even blaming people we don’t even know, and who we don’t really care about.
But, Why is this happening? Is there a gossip gene? Or is it that we are really very prejudiced and succumb to any other story? Psychologists maintain that rumors have a biological basis and scientific studies reveal that humans are natural gossips, so don’t feel bad if one day you woke up at 3 in the morning to watch a special about the secret life of your artist Favorite, it’s not your fault.
We use gossip as a method of social control to isolate people who might harm us. «It is a very sophisticated interaction tool that fulfills several important functions that range from controlling group behavior to defining the adaptation of the individual to that group»indicates the professor of biology and anthropology David Sloan Wilson, who carried out a study on this topic at the State University of New York.
That is, you look at other people’s lives to find out if you can trust them or not and to know if they can hurt you. If someone does something bad and everyone knows about it, that person must change her behavior to get his reputation back. That’s why gossip is used to destroy political careers, and of course, to keep you glued to the television when your favorite show business is on.
And it is that according to important scientists, rumoring is not all bad. “Gossip has an evolutionary meaning and its main function is to build and maintain social relationships” says researcher Robin Dunbar of Harvard University. The expert explains that being social beings, we need to ally ourselves with other humans to survive, and we do this, among other things, by speaking ill of our enemies. That explains why gossips have so many friends despite the evil they do to their ‘victims’.
If you want to have a hectic and successful social life, you can go with your nature and dedicate yourself to gossiping, but remember, gossip has a dark side: you can end up being the victim!