Gossip is the information passed from one person to another about other people' s lives. You may think gossip is awful. Even dictionary suggests that it is often unkind or untrue, but this common idea is unreasonable.
Firstly, a study by Robbins and Karan shows that gossip is common but much of it is just people sharing information. For their study, 467 people' s conversations were recorded. Robbins and Karan found that, on average, these people gossiped for 52 minutes a day, with 75% of the time spent communicating non-evaluative (非评价性的) information. Only about 14 % of the gossip was thought malicious, a much smaller percentage (百分比) than the common idea suggests, although to be fair, that was almost double the percentage of positive (积极的) gossip.
Scientists consider gossip to be an important reason why people in the old times were able to stay alive. It helped spread important news, it also provided information about who was trustworthy and who might not work well with others in a group. It allowed humans to build small communities with those who could be trusted, ensuring a greater chance of living. Today, it seems that not much has changed. Gossip still allows us to develop relationships and find out who we can work with best. Gossip also explains the rules of our society. When we hear someone criticize a person' s behaviour, it is obvious that such behaviour is unacceptable and should not be copied. That' s not to say we should pay attention to everything we hear, but it gives us direction.
Of course, these days, our world is changing the nature of gossip. Our networks are now larger, and some gossip can spread like wildfire. And problems come up when gossip includes untrue information. This kind of gossip can destroy people' s lives.
So scientists say that it' s important to share information that can' t hurt others. If we fail to do this, people will see us as someone who can' t be trusted and may even avoid us. Similarly, gossiping to improve one' s own place in society is unacceptable. It' s best to share information that may act as a warning to others or encourage them to behave better. It' s these things that normally push people together rather than make them turn away from each other.
