Gossip | The Art of Gossip | The bright and dark sides of gossip

The October 2008 edition of the Scientific American Mind published a paper by social psychologist Prof. Frank T. McAndrew, in which he discusses the importance of gossip as a dynamic for organizational social behavior.

Gossip is a more complicated and socially important phenomenon than we think," wrote McAndrew. According to him, gossip is a product of pre-historic times that helped man's ancestors to survive.

Organizations are networks of conversations, and by studying them we cannot avoid paying a close attention to gossip. Gossip is often dismissed as an irrelevant or, worse still, destructive component of the 'conversational mix', but McAndrew identifies a number of positive aspects of gossip.

These are:
* sharing gossip with another person develops trust
* gossip has a bonding effect because secrets are shared with others
* gossip helps to learn the unwritten rules of social groups
* gossip is an efficient way of reminding members of a social group about the importance of the group's norms and values
* gossip helps to deter deviant behavior and to punish anyone who disobeys established norms and values
* gossip is an easy straightforward way for us to compare ourselves socially with others.

McAndrew says that gossip is part of our identity and "an essential part of what makes groups function as well as they do". He even proposes that gossip should be viewed as a social skill rather than a character flaw. The skill exists in knowing when, where, with whom and about whom to engage in the practice. Those who indulge in excessive gossip would in any case be viewed untrustworthy persons. Refusing to indulge in gossip will inevitably lead a person to isolation.

A person who gossips successfully, says McAndrew, is a member of a social group who shares information in a way that will be viewed as serving the group. Gossiping in this aspect is therefore an expression of the social dynamics of the group or organization.

The Gossips

The Bible recognizes the dark side of gossip, as it warns against it many times. A few examples:

You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. Exodus 20:16

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. Matthew 12:36

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers... Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Ephesians 4:29-31

It is human nature to be attracted to gossip. The attraction is that we are not speaking of ourselves but of someone else. We forget ourselves and entertain ourselves by gossiping about others. In this aspect, we can say that gossip is one of the lowest and darkest aspects of human nature.

When we gossip about someone, we aim at excluding him from our group, to destroy him. In a sense, this is an animal instinct: only in the animal world do we sometimes see members of s group killing and eating a member. Human nature must be caring, not destructive, so gossiping about a member with the objective of destroying him is a very dark side of man.

(Read more about the dark side of gossip in Gossip and bullying below.)

A remarkable screenplay--inspired by a fait divers--The Raven is undeniably masterpiece. This movie by Henri-Georges Clouzot attacks a French disease: the spread of false news by informers. The director deploys the full measure of his cynicism in portraying a small provincial town disturbed by anonymous letters. Even if only for the scene where Peter Larquey explains his theory of good and evil by swinging a light bulb, it is a must to see this fable about human nature.

Otto Preminger directed a remake of The Raven: The 13th Letter.

We all have heard about bullying in the workplace or at school. Bullying is treating others abusively by verbal harassment or physical assault, in many cases on grounds of race, religion, sex or ability. Sometimes bullying is a well-planned character assassination.

In 1999, two gifted and promising students in Columbine who had been bullied for years killed 13 people, wounded 24 and then committed suicide. An analysis by the U.S. Secret Service of 37 premeditated school shootings found that bullying, which some of the shooters described "in terms that approached torment," played a major role in more than two-thirds of the attacks.

In many cases bullying or indirect bullying depends on gossip. The gossip aims at threatening the victim into social isolation. This isolation is achieved through spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with the victim, bullying other people who wish to socialize with the victim, and criticizing the victim's manner of dress and other socially-significant markers (including the victim's race, religion, disability, sex or sexual preference, etc.).

In this sense gossip is a very dangerous phenomenon.

Gossip (formerly The Gossip) is a three-piece American indie rock band formed in 1999. The band consists of singer Beth Ditto, guitarist Brace Paine and drummer Hannah Blilie.[1] After releasing several recordings, the band broke through with their 2006 studio album, Standing in the Way of Control (2006). A follow-up, Music for Men, was released in 2009. The band plays a mix of post punk indie rock and dance-punk.

Read more on Wikipedia.

The term gossip is sometimes used to specifically refer to the spreading of dirt and misinformation, as (for example) through excited discussion of scandals. Some newspapers carry "gossip columns" which detail the social and personal lives of celebrities or of élite members of certain communities.

Based on this, we have seen the mushrooming of salacious websites on Celebrity Gossip, Bollywood Gossip, Hollywood Gossip. There are also numerous magazines, hardcopy or online, which spread this type of gossip. One of the most popular magazines is GossipMagazineOnline.com.

This lens was blessed by darciefrench on 06/11/2011 and KimGiancaterino on 06/30/2011. Thank you, Darcie and KimGiancaterino.