How Much Do You Gossip?
What you talk about when the person is not in the room
Almost everyone gossips - researchers who recorded ordinary conversations found that most of the time goes on other people. What differs is the kind: some people track who looks how, some track who is getting ahead, some follow every twist in their friends' love lives, and some prefer people at a distance. This test maps which topics pull you in.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Answer about your ordinary conversations with friends, family and colleagues - not about what you think you should talk about.
What it measures
Four kinds of talk about absent people, following the content areas found in the Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire: appearance, achievement, social news, and people at a distance. In research, gossip is any talk about someone who is not present, kind or unkind - so this is about your interests, not your morals. It differs from social comparison, which is what you feel about others, not what you say.
Based on: Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire (Nevo, Nevo & Derech-Zehavi, 1993) and the social functions of gossip (Dunbar, 2004)
Possible results
Appearance
Talk about how people look, dress and change.
Achievement
Talk about who is getting ahead, earning, passing or failing.
Social news
Talk about relationships, fallings-out and private lives.
At a distance
Interest in people you do not know and in why people act as they do.
Common questions
Is gossip always negative?
No. Researchers define gossip as talk about people who are not present, and a large share of it is neutral or positive - news of a birth, praise for a colleague, worry about a friend. Reviews of the field describe several jobs it does at once: passing on information, entertaining, building closeness between the people talking, and nudging others to behave well.
Why do humans gossip so much?
One influential answer comes from evolutionary psychology: in large groups, talking about absent people lets us keep track of relationships we cannot monitor directly and expose those who take advantage of others. On this view, gossip plays a role for humans similar to grooming among other primates. It is a plausible account, though hard to test directly.
How do I gossip less without becoming isolated?
Change the content rather than leaving the conversation. Talk about absent people that you would be comfortable having them overhear - their news, their good work, a genuine worry - keeps the bonding function without the risk. A useful rule is to avoid passing on anything told to you in confidence and anything about a body.
Sources
- Nevo, O., Nevo, B., & Derech-Zehavi, A. (1993). The development of the Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire: Construct and concurrent validation for a sample of Israeli college students. Educational and Psychological Measurement. doi:10.1177/0013164493053004010
- Dunbar, R. I. M. (2004). Gossip in evolutionary perspective. Review of General Psychology. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.100
- Foster, E. K. (2004). Research on gossip: Taxonomy, methods, and future directions. Review of General Psychology. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.78
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire, so scores are not comparable to its published norms. The original was developed with a small sample of Israeli students, and its authors presented the four content areas as possible subscales, not firmly established ones. Gossip habits also depend heavily on culture, workplace and age. A high score says what you talk about, not whether you are unkind.