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GOSSIP: A PREVALENT HUMAN
BEHAVIOR
"Thou shalt not go up and down as a gossiper among the people.."
(Leviticus 19:16).
Pin by Gizella Oroszi on gossip | Painting, Art, Women.
Pinterest|745 × 467 jpeg.
Medical Research in Biblical Times
Examination of Passages from the Bible,
Exactly as Written
Liubov Ben-Nun
NOT FOR SALE
Author & Editor: Liubov Ben-Nun, Professor Emeritus
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Faculty of Health Sciences, Dept. of Family Medicine
Beer-Sheva, Israel
REMARKS
The small number of pictures and drawings appearing in my books were
checked to the best of my ability regarding publication rights. If I have made a
mistake, I apologize to remove them. In any case, on the first page of all my books,
the words: Not for Sale are printed in bold letters.
I am grateful to my husband for his ideas, wisdom and courage that
made this Research possible.
The Author gains no financial or other benefits.
B. N. Publication House. Israel. 2022.
E-Mail: L-bennun@smile.net.il
Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or
private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling.
Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has
found gossip to be an important means for people to monitor
cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect
reciprocity. Indirect reciprocity is a social interaction in which one
actor helps another and is then benefited by a third party. Gossip has
also been identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, as
aiding social bonding in large groups.
The present Research deals with one Biblical verse indicating
gossip "Thou shalt not go up and down as a gossiper among the
people" (Leviticus 19:16).
In this research, the Biblical verse dealing with the gossip is
described. Therefore, the research deals with the characteristics of
the gossip, the types, the attitude, and the coping strategies.
Negative gossip has contradicting effects on newcomer job
anxiety through perceived social inclusion and negative rumination,
and agreeableness as a boundary condition of the effects of receiving
negative gossip. Gossip mostly depletes cooperation compared to
first-hand information. Negative gossip in the sharer-classmate,
target-friend condition is rated most negatively. Negative gossip has
an adverse consequence on the human life.
Various strategies that can be used to cope with gossip.
In the recent years, the diagnostic possibilities have been
validated through scientific research and have shown medicinal value
in the diagnostics and the management of conditions associated with
the gossip.
This research has shown that the awareness of the gossip has
accompanied humans during the long years of our existence.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
4
THE BIBLICAL VERSE
5
CHARACTERISTICS
5
FACES OF GOSSIP
15
TYPES
28
ATTITUDES
92
MANAGEMENT
94
SUMMARY
97
4
INTRODUCTION
Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or
private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling
(1).
Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology (2), which
has found gossip to be an important means for people to monitor
cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect
reciprocity (3). Indirect reciprocity is a social interaction in which one
actor helps another and is then benefited by a third party. Gossip has
also been identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, as
aiding social bonding in large groups (4).
Feinberg & al. (5) mentioned that reputation systems promote
cooperation and deter antisocial behavior in groups. Little is known,
however, about how and why people share reputational information.
Here, the Authors seek to establish the existence and dynamics of
prosocial gossip, the sharing of negative evaluative information about
a target in a way that protects others from antisocial or exploitative
behavior. A model of prosocial gossip and the results of 4 studies
testing the model's claims are presented. Results of Studies 1
through 3 demonstrate that 1] individuals who observe an antisocial
act experience negative affect and are compelled to share
information about the antisocial actor with a potentially vulnerable
person, 2] sharing such information reduces negative affect created
by observing the antisocial behavior, and 3] individuals possessing
more prosocial orientations are the most motivated to engage in
such gossip, even at a personal cost, and exhibit the greatest
reduction in negative affect as a result. Study 4] demonstrates that
prosocial gossip can effectively deter selfishness and promote
cooperation. Taken together these results highlight the roles of
prosocial motivations and negative affective reactions to injustice in
maintaining reputational information sharing in groups. The data
show that by discussing implications for reputational theories of the
maintenance of cooperation in human groups (5).
Anderson & al. (6) emphasized that gossip is a form of affective
information about who is friend and who is foe. It is shown that
gossip does not influence only how a face is evaluated - it affects
whether a face is seen in the first place. In two experiments, neutral
faces were paired with negative, positive, or neutral gossip and were
then presented alone in a binocular rivalry paradigm (faces were
presented to one eye, houses to the other). In both studies, faces
previously paired with negative (but not positive or neutral) gossip
dominated longer in visual consciousness. These findings
demonstrate that gossip, as a potent form of social affective learning,
can influence vision in a completely top-down manner, independent
of the basic structural features of a face (6).
References
1. Gossip - Define Gossip. at Dictionary.com. Available at
Dictionary.com.
2. McAndrew, Frank T. The Science of Gossip: Why we can't stop
ourselves". 2008. Sci Am. Available at
www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-of-gossip/
5
3. Sommerfeld RD, Krambeck HJ, Semmann D, Milinski M. Gossip as
an alternative for direct observation in games of indirect reciprocity. Proc
Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007;104(44):17435–40.
4. Dunbar RI. Gossip in evolutionary perspective. Rev Gen Psychol.
2004;8(2):100–10.
5. Feinberg M, Willer R, Stellar J, Keltner D. The virtues of gossip:
reputational information sharing as prosocial behavior. J Pers Soc Psychol.
2012;102(5):1015-30.
6. Anderson E, Siegel EH, Bliss-Moreau E, Feldman Barrett L. The visual
impact of gossip. Science. 2011;332(6036):1446-8.
Thus, gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or
private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling.
What are the characteristics of gossip? What are the types? What
are the attitudes? What are the coping strategies? In this research
the Biblical verse dealing with the gossip is described. Therefore, the
research deals with the characteristics of the gossip, the types, and
the consequences.
THE BIBLICAL VERSE
"Thou shalt not go up and down as a gossiper among the people"
(Leviticus 19:16).
CHARACTERISTICS
ETYMOLOGY
The word is from Old English godsibb, from god and sibb, the term
for the godparents of one's child or the parents of one's godchild,
generally very close friends. In the 16th century, the word assumed
the meaning of a person, mostly a woman, one who delights in idle
talk, a newsmonger, a tattler (1). In the early 19th century, the term
was extended from the talker to the conversation of such persons.
The verb to gossip, meaning "to be a gossip", first appears in
Shakespeare (2).
The term originates from the bedroom at the time of childbirth.
Giving birth used to be a social event exclusively attended by women.
The pregnant woman's female relatives and neighbors would
congregate and idly converse. Over time, gossip came to mean talk of
others (3).
References
1. OED. In: Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
2. If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (Bedroom), Lucy
Worsley, BBC. In: Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
3. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip
6
EVOLUTIONARY VIEW
From Robin Dunbar's evolutionary theories, gossip originated to
help bond the groups that were constantly growing in size. To
survive, individuals need alliances; but as these alliances grew larger,
it was difficult if not impossible to physically connect with everyone.
Conversation and language were able to bridge this gap. Gossip
became a social interaction that helped the group gain information
about other individuals without personally speaking to them (1).
Eugene de Blaas. The Friendly Gossips. 1901.
It enabled people to keep up with what was going on in their
social network. It also creates a bond between the teller and the
hearer, as they share information of mutual interest and spend time
together. It also helps the hearer learn about another individual’s
behavior and helps them have a more effective approach to their
relationship. Dunbar (2004) found that 65% of conversations consist
of social topics (2).
Dunbar (1994) argues that gossip is the equivalent of social
grooming often observed in other primate species (3).
Anthropological investigations indicate that gossip is a cross-cultural
phenomenon, providing evidence for evolutionary accounts of gossip
(4-6).
There is very little evidence to suggest meaningful sex differences
in the proportion of conversational time spent gossiping, and when
there is a difference, women are only very slightly more likely to
gossip compared with men (3,6,7). Further support for the
evolutionary significance of gossip comes from a recent study
published in the peer-reviewed journal, Science Anderson and
colleagues (2011) found that faces paired with negative social
information dominate visual consciousness to a greater extent than
positive and neutral social information during a binocular rivalry task
(1).
Binocular rivalry occurs when two different stimuli are presented
to each eye simultaneously and the two percepts compete for
dominance in visual consciousness. While this occurs, an individual
will consciously perceive one of the percepts while the other is
suppressed. After a time, the other percept will become dominant,
and an individual will become aware of the second percept. Finally,
7
the two percepts will alternate back and forth in terms of visual
awareness (1).
The study by Anderson and colleagues (2011) indicates that higher
order cognitive processes, like evaluative information processing, can
influence early visual processing. That only negative social
information differentially affected the dominance of the faces during
the task alludes to the unique importance of knowing information
about an individual that should be avoided (8). Since the positive
social information did not produce greater perceptual dominance of
the matched face indicates that negative information about an
individual may be more salient to our behavior than positive (9).
Gossip also gives information about social norms and guidelines
for behavior. Gossip Lanka usually comments on how appropriate a
behavior was, and the mere act of repeating it signifies its
importance. In this sense, gossip is effective regardless of whether it
is positive or negative (10). Some theorists have proposed that
gossip is actually a pro-social behavior intended to allow an individual
to correct their socially prohibitive behavior without direct
confrontation of the individual. By gossiping about an individual’s
acts, other individuals can subtly indicate that said acts are
inappropriate and allow the individual to correct their behavior
(Schoeman 1994) (1).
References
1. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
2. Dunbar R. Gossip in evolutionary perspective. Rev Gen Psychol.
2004;8 (2): 100–110.
3. Dunbar RIM. Grooming, gossip, and the evolution of language.
London: Faver & Faber. 1994.
4. Besnier N. Information withholding as a manipulative and collusive
strategy in Nukulaelae gossip. Language in Society. 1989;18(3):315–41.
5. Gluckman M. Gossip and scandal. Current Anthropol. 1963;4: 307–
16.
6. Haviland JB. Gossip as competition in Zinacantan. J Commun.
1977;27: 186–91.
7. Foster EK. Research on gossip: Taxonomy, methods, and future
directions. Rev Gen Psychol. 2004;8 (2):78–99.
8. Hedrih V. New study on intrasexual competition sheds light on
women's most common insults toward female rivals. PsyPost. 2023.
Available at www.psypost.org/2023/01/new-study-on-intrasexual-
competition-sheds-light-on-womens-most-common-insults-toward-
female-rivals-64997.
9. Anderson E, Siegel EH, Bliss-Moreau E, Barrett LF. The visual impact
of gossip. Science Magazine. 2011;332(6036):1446–8.
10. GOSSIP 99 | Gossip Lanka News | Hot Gossips | Sri Lankan
Exclusive News | Gossip Lanka | Gossip Lanka News. Available at
www.gossip99.
SOME HISTORICAL NOTES
Rudnicki & al. (1) investigated an evolutionary hypothesis of
gossip postulating that in humans it serves a similar function as social
grooming in other primates. It examines whether gossip decreases
physiological markers of stress and increases markers of positive
emotionality and sociability. Dyads of friends (n=66) recruited at the
8
university, participated in an experiment where they experienced a
stressor followed by social interaction (gossip or control task).
Individual levels of salivary cortisol and endorphins were assessed at
before and after social interactions. Sympathetic activity and
parasympathetic activity were monitored throughout the
experiment. Individual differences in Tendency and Attitude towards
Gossip were investigated as potential covariates. Gossip condition
was characterized with increased sympathetic and parasympathetic
activity but did not differ in cortisol or endorphins levels. However,
high Tendency to Gossip was associated with decreases in cortisol.
Gossip was shown to be more emotionally salient than non-social
talk, but the evidence with regard to lowering stress was not
sufficient to support an analogy to social grooming (1).
Using evidence from cases recorded in the registers of the
consistories of southern France, the Lipscomb (2) investigates the
way in which Languedocian women policed each other's behavior,
enforcing a collective morality through gossip, sexual insult and
physical confrontation. In contrast to case studies by other
historians, it is argued here that gossip does appear to have been a
peculiarly female activity, but far more than simply being an outlet
for malice or prurience, it gave women a distinctive social role in the
town. No less evident is the involvement of women in physical
violence both against each other and against men, violence which,
though less extreme than its male counterpart, nonetheless occupies
a significant role in the proceedings of the consistories (2).
Rovesti & al. (3) stated that despite the new World Health
Organization data remind us how syphilis is a disease which affects
both sexes equally, this pathology has always been mainly considered
a male disease. While several famous men are known to be affected
by syphilis, there are very few women affected by this pathology of
which we have historical records. Through the lives of Mary Todd
Lincoln, Catherine of Aragon, Karen Blixen and Florence Foster
Jenkins, this article would like to grant dignity to all the women who
contracted syphilis in the wrong historical era where, for a woman,
admitting to contracting it was shameful. Through the important
women who lived their lives fighting against this disease and its
complications, we would like to pay tribute to all those women who
still today, in an era of antibiotics and where syphilis is a treatable
pathology, they cannot be cured because they are both
geographically and socially disadvantaged (3).
References
1. Rudnicki K, Spacova I, De Backer C, et al. Neuroendocrine and
psychophysiological investigation of the evolutionary roots of gossip. Sci
Rep. 2023 Feb 22;13(1):3117.
2. Lipscomb S. Crossing boundaries: women's gossip, insults and
violence in sixteenth-century France. Fr Hist. 2011;25(4):408-26.
3. Rovesti M, Satolli F, Zucchi A, et al. Between history and gossip: the
state of women relative to syphilis, a traditionally male disease. J Biol
Regul Homeost Agents. 2017;31(2 Suppl. 2):187-91.
9
FUNCTIONS
Gossip can (1,2):
• reinforce– or punish the lack of – morality and accountability
• reveal passive aggression, isolating and harming others
• build and maintain a sense of community with shared
interests, information, and values
• begin a courtship that helps one find their desired mate, by
counseling others
• provide a peer-to-peer mechanism for disseminating
information
References
1. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
2. Abercrombie, Nicholas. Sociology: a short introduction. Short
introductions. Cambridge: Polity Press. 2004, pp. 122–152. ISBN 978-
0745625416.
MECHANISMS
Giardini (1) mentioned that spreading information about the
members of one's group is one of the most universal human
behaviors. Thanks to gossip, individuals can acquire the information
about their peers without sustaining the burden of costly interactions
with cheaters, but they can also create and revise social bonds.
Gossip has also several positive functions at the group level,
promoting cohesion and norm compliance. However, gossip can be
unreliable, and can be used to damage others' reputation or to
circulate false information, thus becoming detrimental to people
involved and useless for the group. In this work, a theoretical model
is proposed in which reliability of gossip depends on the joint
functioning of two distinct mechanisms. Thanks to the first, i.e.,
deterrence, individuals tend to avoid informational cheating because
they fear punishment and the disruption of social bonds. On the
other hand, transmission provides humans with the opportunity of
reducing the consequences of cheating through a manipulation of the
source of gossip (1).
According to Samu & Takács (2), gossip is believed to be an
informal device that alleviates the problem of cooperation in
humans. Communication about previous acts and passing on
reputational information could be valuable for conditional action in
cooperation problems and pose a punishment threat to defectors. It
is an open question, however, what kind of mechanisms can make
gossip honest and credible and reputational information reliable,
especially if intense competition for reputations does not exclusively
dictate passing on honest information. Two mechanisms are
proposed that could support the honesty and credibility of gossip
under such a conflict of interest. One is the possibility of voluntary
checks of received evaluative information from different sources and
the other is social bonding between the sender and the receiver. The
efficiency of cross-checking and social bonding were tested in a
laboratory experiment where subjects played the Prisoner's Dilemma
with gossip interactions. Although individuals had confidence in
gossip in both conditions, it was found that, overall, neither the
10
opportunities for cross-checking nor bonding were able to maintain
cooperation. Meanwhile, strong competition for reputation
increased cooperation when individuals' payoffs depended greatly on
their position relative to their rivals. The results suggest that intense
competition for reputation facilitates gossip functioning as an
informal device promoting cooperation. This article is part of the
theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and honest
signalling' (2).
Hoge & al. (3) mentioned that the neuropeptide oxytocin is
implicated in social processing, and recent research has begun to
explore how gender relates to the reported effects. This study
examined the effects of oxytocin on social affective perception and
learning. Forty-seven male and female participants made judgments
of faces during two different tasks, after being randomized to either
double-blinded intranasal oxytocin or placebo. In the first task,
"unseen" affective stimuli were presented in a continuous flash
suppression paradigm, and participants evaluated faces paired with
these stimuli on dimensions of competence, trustworthiness, and
warmth. In the second task, participants learned affective
associations between neutral faces and affective acts through a
gossip learning procedure and later made affective ratings of the
faces. In both tasks, gender moderated the effect of oxytocin, such
that male participants in the oxytocin condition rated faces more
negatively, compared with placebo. The opposite pattern of findings
emerged for female participants: they rated faces more positively in
the oxytocin condition, compared with placebo. These findings
contribute to a small but growing body of research demonstrating
differential effects of oxytocin in men and women (3).
Johansen & al. (4) reported that the practice of sending and
receiving nude and semi-nude images without consent is gaining
increasing public attention and has been identified as a new form of
digital sexual violence, framing sexting as a risk behavior. In order to
account for the existence of non-consensual nude sharing among
young people in Denmark, the Authors set out to conduct an
ethnographic exploration of the social processes, gender dynamics
and social implications of the practice. The analysis suggests that
non-consensual sharing acts as a form of visual gossip to maintain
social bonds and gendered recognition. The practice often has
gendered implications as it rests on and reproduces gendered values,
forming the basis for judging girls' and boys' sexual activities
differently. By using the framework of visual gossip, attention was
drawn to how the social dynamics of gossiping shape the different
violating actions tied to the nude across time and context (4).
Carson & al. (5) emphasized that media exposure has been found
to impact adolescent smoking, although the mechanisms of this
relationship have not been thoroughly investigated. Drive for
thinness and tobacco advertising receptivity, both shown to be
associated with smoking, are two potential mediators. Totally, 967
twelfth grade students completed a self-report survey as part of a
longitudinal study of biobehavioral predictors of smoking. Exposure
to magazines and television, drive for thinness, tobacco
advertisement receptivity, and twelfth grade smoking level were the
primary variables of interest. Effects of gender, race, BMI, smoking
11
exposure, and perceived physical appearance were controlled for in
the model. Exposure to fashion, entertainment, and gossip
magazines had indirect effects on smoking via drive for thinness and
tobacco advertisement receptivity. There was a direct effect of
health, fitness, and sports magazine reading on smoking. Television
watching had no significant effects on smoking. The data show that
adolescents who read fashion, entertainment, and gossip magazines
may be more likely to smoke, in part, because of a higher drive for
thinness and greater receptivity to cigarette advertisements.
Conversely, adolescents reading Health and Fitness magazines may
be less likely to smoke. Drive for thinness and tobacco advertising
receptivity are thus potential targets for adolescent smoking
intervention (5).
References
1. Giardini F. Deterrence and transmission as mechanisms ensuring
reliability of gossip. Cogn Process. 2012;13 Suppl 2:465-75.
2. Samu F, Takács K. Evaluating mechanisms that could support
credible reputations and cooperation: cross-checking and social bonding.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2021 Nov 22;376(1838):20200302.
3. Hoge EA, Anderson E, Lawson EA, et al. Gender moderates the
effect of oxytocin on social judgments. Hum Psychopharmacol.
2014;29(3):299-304.
4. Johansen KBH, Pedersen BM, Tjørnhøj-Thomsen T. Visual gossiping:
non-consensual 'nude' sharing among young people in Denmark. Cult
Health Sex. 2019;21(9):1029-44.
5. Carson NJ, Rodriguez D, Audrain-McGovern J. Investigation of
mechanisms linking media exposure to smoking in high school students.
Prev Med. 2005;41(2):511-20.
VARIOUS VIEWS
Some see gossip as trivial, hurtful, and socially and/or
intellectually unproductive. Some people view gossip as a
lighthearted way of spreading information. A feminist definition of
gossip presents it as "a way of talking between women, intimate in
style, personal and domestic in scope and setting, a female cultural
event which springs from and perpetuates the restrictions of the
female role, but also gives the comfort of validation." (Jones,
1990:243) (1).
Reference
1. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
EARLY MODERN ENGLISH
In Early Modern England the word "gossip" referred to
companions in childbirth, not limited to the midwife. It also became
a term for women-friends generally, with no necessary derogatory
connotations. (OED n. definition 2. a. "A familiar acquaintance,
friend, chum", supported by references from 1361 to 1873). It
commonly referred to an informal local sorority or social group, who
could enforce socially acceptable behavior through private censure or
12
through public rituals, such as "rough music", the cucking stool and
the skimmington ride (1).
In Thomas Harman’s Caveat for Common Cursitors 1566 a
‘walking mort’ relates how she was forced to agree to meet a man in
his barn, but informed his wife. The wife arrived with her “five
furious, sturdy, muffled gossips” who catch the errant husband with
“his hosen [trousers] about his legs” and give him a sound beating.
The story clearly functions as a morality tale in which the gossips
uphold the social order (2).
In Sir Herbert Maxwell Bart's The Chevalier of the Splendid Crest
[1900] at the end of chapter three the king is noted as referring to his
loyal knight "Sir Thomas de Roos" in kindly terms as "my old gossip".
Whilst a historical novel of that time the reference implies a
continued use of the term "Gossip (2)" as childhood friend as late as
1900 (1).
References
1. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
2. Bernard Capp. When Gossips Meet: Women, Family and
Neighbourhood in Early Modern England, Oxford University Press. 2003.
ISBN 0-19-925598-9.
3. news, Gossip99 Lanka. GOSSIP 99 | Gossip Lanka News | Hot
Gossips | Sri Lankan Exclusive News | Gossip Lanka. Sri Lankan Exclusive
News | Gossip Lanka. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
CHRISTIANITY
The Christian perspective on gossip is typically based on modern
cultural assumptions of the phenomenon, especially the assumption
that generally speaking, gossip is negative speech (1-3). However,
due to the complexity of the phenomenon, biblical scholars have
more precisely identified the form and function of gossip, even
identifying a socially positive role for the social process as it is
described in the New Testament (4-11). Of course, this does not
mean that there are not numerous texts in the New Testament that
see gossip as dangerous negative speech (12).
Thus, for example, the Epistle to the Romans associates gossips
("backbiters") with a list of sins including sexual immorality and with
murder (12):
28: And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
are not convenient
29: Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit,
malignity; whisperers
30: Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents
31: Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful
32: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit
such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28-32)
13
Based on texts like these portraying gossip negatively, many
Christian authors generalize on the phenomenon. So, in order to
gossip, writes Phil Fox Rose, we "must harden our heart towards the
'out' person. A line is drawn between us and them; define them as
being outside the rules of Christian charity. A gap is created between
ourselves and God's Love." As we harden our heart towards more
people and groups, he continues, "this negativity and feeling of
separateness will grow and permeate our world, and it is found it
more difficult to access God’s love in any aspect of our lives" (13).
References
1. Meng M. Gossip: Killing Us Softly. Homilet Pastor Rev. 2008:109:
26–31.
2. Sedler MD. Stop the Runaway Conversation: Take Control Over
Gossip and Criticism. Grand Rapids: Chosen. 2001.
3. Mitchell CM. Resisting Gossip: Winning the War of the Wagging
Tongue. Fort Washington: CLC Publications. 2013.
4. Daniels, John W. Gossiping Jesus: The Oral Processing of Jesus in
John's Gospel. Eugene: Pickwick Publications. 2013.
5. Daniels, John W. Gossip in the New Testament. Biblical Theology
Bulletin 42/4. 2012, pp. 204-213.
6. Botha Pieter JJ. Paul and Gossip: A Social Mechanism in Early
Christian Communities. Neotestamentica. 1998;32:267–88.
7. Botha Pieter JJ. The Social Dynamics of the Early Transmission of
the Jesus Tradition. Neotestamentica. 1993;27: 205–31.
8. Kartzow BM. Female Gossipers and their Reputation in the Pastoral
Epistles. Neotestamentica. 2005;39:255–71.
9. Kartzow BM. Gossip and Gender: Othering of Speech in the Pastoral
Epistles. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 2009.
10. Kartzow BM. Resurrection as Gossip: Representations of Women
in Resurrection Stories of the Gospels. Lectio Difficilior 1. 2 010. Available
at www.lectio.unibe.ch//de
11. Rohrbaugh RL. Gossip in the New Testament. The New Testament
in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Eugene: Cascade Books. 2007. Available at
www.lectio.unibe.ch/del/.
12. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
13. Phil Fox Rose. Gossip hardens our hearts. Patheos. Available at
www.patheos.com/blogs/philfoxrose/2012/10/gossip-hardens-our-
hearts/.
ISLAM
Islam considers backbiting the equivalent of eating the flesh of
one's dead brother. According to Muslims, backbiting harms its
victims without offering them any chance of defense, just as dead
people cannot defend against their flesh being eaten. Muslims are
expected to treat others like brothers (regardless of their beliefs, skin
color, gender, or ethnic origin), deriving from Islam's concept of
brotherhood amongst its believers (1).
Reference
1. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
14
THE BAHA'I FAITH
The Bahá’í Faith aims to promote the unity of humankind and
considers backbiting to be the "worst human quality and the most
great sin... (1). Therefore, even murder would be considered less
reprobate than backbiting. Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the
Bahá’í Faith stated that, "Backbiting quencheth the light of the heart,
and extinguisheth the life of the soul" (2). More than affecting one's
physical condition, Bahá’ís understands that when someone gossips
and finds faults in others it hampers the spiritual development of
those involved while also creating disunity among individuals,
communities, and society at large (3).
References
1. Backbiting. Bahai Quotes.com. Available at
web.archive.org/web/20180924224839/http://www.bahaiquotes.com/qu
ote.page.php?Quotes%2Fbackbiting.
2. Lights of Guidance/Backbiting, Criticism, Faultfinding, Gossip, Lies,
Slander Etc. - Bahaiworks, a library of works about the Bahá'í Faith.
Bahai.works. Available at web.archive.org/web/20180924224839/http://
www.bahaiquotes.com/quotepage.php?Quotes%2bakbiting.
3. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
PERCEPTIONS OF THOSE WHO GOSSIP
Individuals who are perceived to engage in gossiping regularly are
seen as having less social power and being less liked (1). The type of
gossip being exchanged also affects likeability, whereby those who
engage in negative gossip are less liked than those who engage in
positive gossip (2). In a study done by Turner and colleagues (2003),
having a prior relationship with a gossiper was not found to protect
the gossiper from less favorable personality-ratings after gossip was
exchanged. In the study, pairs of individuals were brought into a
research lab to participate. Either the two individuals were friends
prior to the study, or they were strangers scheduled to participate at
the same time. One of the individuals was a confederate of the
study, and they engaged in gossiping about the research assistant
after she left the room. The gossip exchanged was either positive or
negative. Regardless of gossip type (positive versus negative) or
relationship type (friend versus stranger) the gossipers were rated as
less trustworthy after sharing the gossip (3).
Walter Block has suggested that while gossip (4) and blackmail
both involve the disclosure of unflattering information, the
blackmailer is arguably ethically superior to the gossip (5). Block
writes: "In a sense, the gossip is much worse than the blackmailer, for
the blackmailer has given the blackmailed a chance to silence him.
The gossip exposes the secret without warning." The victim of a
blackmailer is thus offered choices denied to the subject of gossip,
such as deciding if the exposure of his or her secret is worth the cost
the blackmailer demands. Moreover, in refusing a blackmailer's offer
one is in no worse a position than with the gossip. Adds Block, "It is
indeed difficult, then, to account for the vilification suffered by the
blackmailer, at least compared to the gossip, who is usually dismissed
with slight contempt and smugness" (1).
15
Contemporary critiques of gossip may concentrate on or become
subsumed in the discussion of social media such as Facebook (6).
References
1. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
2. Farley S. Is gossip power? The inverse relationship between gossip,
power, and likability. Eur J Soc Psychol. 2011;41(5): 574–9.
3. Turner MM, Mazur MA, Wendel N, Winslow R. Relationship ruin or
social glue? The joint effect of relationship type and gossip valence on
liking, trust, and expertise. Commun Monogr. 2003;70: 129–41.
4. Lanka, Gossip. Gossip Lanka | Gossip Lanka News | Gossip | Lanka
Hot News | Sri Lanka. In en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
5. Block Walter ([1976], 1991, 2008). Defending the Undefendable:
The Pimp, Prostitute, Scab, Slumlord, Libeler, Moneylender, and Other
Scapegoats in the Rogue's Gallery of American Society Auburn, AL: Ludwig
von Mises Institute. ISBN 978-1-933550-17-6, pp. 42-43.
6. Cuonzo MA. Gossip and the evolution of facebook. In Wittkower,
D. E. (ed.). Facebook and Philosophy: What's on Your Mind?. Popular
culture and philosophy series, edited by George A. Reisch. 2010, Vol. 50.
Chicago: Open Court Publishing. p. 173ff. ISBN 9780812696752.
FACES OF GOSSIP
Peters & Fonseca & al. (1) emphasized that it is widely assumed
that people will share inaccurate gossip for their own selfish
purposes. This assumption, if true, presents a challenge to the
growing body of work positing that gossip is a ready source of
accurate reputational information and therefore is welfare
improving. This inaccuracy assumption was tested by examining the
frequency and form of spontaneous lies shared between gossiping
members of networks playing a series of one-shot trust games (n=
320). It was manipulated whether gossipers were or were not
competing with each other. It was shown that lies make up a
sizeable minority of messages and are twice as frequent under
gossiper competition. However, this had no discernible effect on
trust levels. This was attributed to the findings that 1] gossip targets
are insensitive to lies and 2] some lies are welfare enhancing. These
findings suggest that lies need not prevent-and may help-gossip to
serve reputational functions (1).
Cruz & al. (2) emphasized that gossip-a sender communicating to a
receiver about an absent third party-is hypothesized to impact
reputation formation, partner selection, and cooperation.
Laboratory experiments have found that people gossip about others'
cooperativeness and that they use gossip to condition their
cooperation. Here, the Authors beyond the laboratory and test
several predictions from theories of indirect reciprocity and
reputation-based partner selection about the content of everyday
gossip and how people use it to update the reputation of others in
their social network. In a Dutch community sample (n=309), daily
events were sampled in which people either sent or received gossip
about a target over 10 days (ngossip = 5,284). Gossip senders
frequently shared information about targets' cooperativeness and
16
did so in ways that minimize potential retaliation from targets.
Receivers overwhelmingly believed gossip to be true and updated
their evaluation of targets based on gossip. In turn, a positive shift in
the evaluation of a target was associated with higher intentions to
help them in future interactions, and with lower intentions to avoid
them in the future. Thus, gossip is used in daily life to impact and
update reputations in a way that enables partner selection and
indirect reciprocity. This article is part of the theme issue 'The
language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling' (2).
Gossiping at the Well - Eugene de Blaas - WikiGallery. org, the largest.
wikigallery.org.
Sommerfeld & al. (3) stated that communication about social
topics is abundant in human societies, and many functions have been
attributed to such gossiping. One of these proposed functions is the
management of reputations. Reputation by itself has been shown to
have a strong influence on cooperation dynamics in games of indirect
reciprocity, and this notion helps to explain the observed high level of
cooperation in humans. Here a game was designed to test a
widespread assumption that gossip functions as a vector for the
transmission of social information. This empirical study (with 14
groups of nine students each) focuses on the composition of gossip,
information transfer by gossip, and the behavior based on gossip
information. Gossip has a strong influence on the resulting behavior
even when participants have access to the original information (i.e.,
direct observation) as well as gossip about the same information.
Thus, it is evident that gossip has a strong manipulative potential.
Furthermore, gossip about cooperative individuals is more positive
than gossip about uncooperative individuals, gossip comments
transmit social information successfully, and cooperation levels are
higher when people encounter positive compared with negative
gossip (3).
Yucel & al. (4) described the data reported in the paper "Being in
the know: Social network analysis of gossip and friendship on college
campuses" (Yucel et al. 2021). Data were collected from a Men's and
Women's collegiate crew team members from a small liberal arts
college. Participants (n=44) reported information about how often
they gossip about members of the team (positively, negatively), who
they have had hooked-up with on the team, who they consider to be
friends with on the team, whether they have to sabotaged or been
sabotaged by any teammates, their well-being, and feelings of
17
loneliness. This data brief provides detailed information about data
preparation and participants responses to all survey items (4).
Yucel & al. (5) reported that gossip (evaluative talk about others)
is ubiquitous. Gossip allows important rules to be clarified and
reinforced, and it allows individuals to keep track of their social
networks while strengthening their bonds to the group. The purpose
of this study is to decipher the nature of gossip and how it relates to
friendship connections. To measure how gossip relates to friendship,
participants from men's and women's collegiate competitive rowing
(crew) teams (n=44) noted their friendship connections and their
tendencies to gossip about each of their teammates. Using social
network analysis, it was found that the crew members' friend group
connectedness significantly correlated with their positive and
negative gossip network involvement. Higher connectedness among
friends was associated with less involvement in spreading negative
gossip and/or being a target of negative gossip. More central
connectedness to the friend group was associated with more
involvement in spreading positive gossip and/or being a target of
positive gossip. These results suggest that the spread of both
positive and negative gossip may influence and be influenced by
friendship connections in a social network (5).
Fonseca & Peters (6) emphasized that the possibility that
gossipers may share dishonest reputational information is a key
challenge to claims that gossip can shore up cooperation in social
groups. It has been suggested that imposing social costs on
dishonest gossipers should increase the honesty of these
reputational signals. However, at present, there is little evidence of
people's willingness to impose costs on dishonest gossipers; there is
also little evidence of their ability to detect gossipers' lies in the first
place. This paper aims to shed light on people's abilities to detect
dishonest gossip and their treatment of those who share it. To do
this, the results of two trust game studies are reported using the
strategy method (study 1) and repeated interactions in the laboratory
(study 2). It was shown that in an environment where gossipers tell
spontaneous lies people are more inclined to believe honest than
dishonest gossip. It was also0 shown that people are more likely to
treat favorably gossipers they believe to be honest, but that this does
not always result in more favorable treatment for gossipers who
were actually honest. The implications were discussed for the
potential utility of social sanctions as a tool for securing honesty.
This article is part of the theme issue 'The language of cooperation:
reputation and honest signaling' (6).
Feinberg & al. (7) stated that the widespread existence of
cooperation is difficult to explain because individuals face strong
incentives to exploit the cooperative tendencies of others. In the
research reported here, it was examined how the spread of
reputational information through gossip promotes cooperation in
mixed-motive settings. Results showed that individuals readily
communicated reputational information about others, and recipients
used this information to selectively interact with cooperative
individuals and ostracize those who had behaved selfishly, which
enabled group members to contribute to the public good with
reduced threat of exploitation. Additionally, ostracized individuals
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responded to exclusion by subsequently cooperating at levels
comparable to those who were not ostracized. These results suggest
that the spread of reputational information through gossip can
mitigate egoistic behavior by facilitating partner selection, thereby
helping to solve the problem of cooperation even in noniterated
interactions (7).
Wu & al. (8) emphasized that prior theory suggests that
reputation spreading (e.g., gossip) and punishment are two key
mechanisms to promote cooperation in groups, but no behavioral
research has yet examined their relative effectiveness and efficiency
in promoting and maintaining cooperation. To examine these issues,
participants interacting in a four-round public goods game (PGG)
were observed with or without gossip and punishment options, and a
subsequent two-round trust game (TG). Gossip was manipulated as
the option to send notes about other group members to these
members' future partners, and punishment as the option to assign
deduction points to reduce other group members' outcomes with a
fee-to-fine ratio of 1:3. Findings revealed that in the four-round PGG,
the option to gossip increased both cooperation and individual
earnings, whereas the option to punish had no overall effect on
cooperation (but a positive effect on cooperation in the last two
rounds of the PGG) and significantly decreased individual earnings.
Importantly, the initial option to gossip made people more trusting
and trustworthy in the subsequent TG when gossip was no longer
possible, compared to the no-gossip condition. Thus, some initial
evidence is provided that gossip may be more effective and efficient
than punishment to promote and maintain cooperation (8).
Ullah & al. (9) examined the impact of negative workplace gossip
(NWG) on employee political acts (PA) and the role of ego depletion
(ED) as a mediator. The indirect impact of NWG was also examined
on PA through ED controlled by emotional intelligence (EI). A three-
wave time-lagged study (paper-pencil based) was performed with
277 employees from various private organizations in Islamabad,
Pakistan. The current data were gathered in three phases to reduce
common method bias. Study results indicate that NWG positively
affects employees' PA. The Authors also found ED as a potential
mediator in the association between NWG and PA. In addition, the
results also indicate the indirect effect of NWG on targets' PA via ED
is reduced by targets' EI, with the result that this connection is weak
when targets' EI is high. Because this research is limited to a single
region of Pakistan, particularly Islamabad, its findings cannot be
comprehensive. Future studies should use a larger sample size to
accomplish the same study. Future studies may include more
organizations (that is, Public) to conduct a comparative analysis of
the public and private sectors. This article, based on the affective
events theory (AET), argues that EI should be utilized to mitigate the
effects of NWG. Along with the significant and relevant theoretical
contributions, novel insights are provided into the body of knowledge
on how managers may prevent or minimize such PA. The current
study results support all direct and indirect hypothesized
connections, with important implications for theory and practice. A
review of the existing literature indicates that EI may be associated
with a reduction in employees' ED; however, EI has not been used as
19
a moderator in mitigating the influence of NWG, ED, and PA in the
past (9).
Giardini & Wittek (10) reported that most of the current
literature on gossip describes gossipmongers as incessantly sharing
evaluative and valuable information about an absent third party in
teams, groups, communities, and organizations. However, potential
gossipers can similarly decide not to share what they know,
depending on the content, the context, or their relationship with the
other actors in the gossip triad. It was argued that understanding the
reasons why people do not gossip may provide useful insights into
individual motives, group dynamics, and collective behaviors. This
theoretical contribution first critically surveys the existing gossip
literature with the aim of highlighting the conditions under which
people might refrain from sharing third party information. Then it
was proposed to apply Goal Framing theory as a way to bridge a
theory of the micro-foundations of human behavior with an
analytical model of the gossip triad that disentangles the various
ways through which senders, receivers, and objects of gossip may be
interrelated. From a goal framing perspective, most research on
gossip illustrates the mechanisms in which the hedonic gratification
derived from gossiping is reinforced by gain or normative goals.
However, a normative or a gain goal frame can prevent the gossip
monger from spreading the information, and it was argued that
depending on different configurations of frames and relations
between actors the perceived costs of sending gossip may be far
higher than much of the previous literature suggests (10).
Lee & al. (11) emphasized that to understand, predict, and help
correct each other's actions we need to maintain accurate, up-to-
date knowledge of people, and communication is a critical means by
which is gathered and disseminate this information. Yet the
conditions under which we communication social information remain
unclear. Testing hypotheses generated from the theoretical
framework, when and why social information is disseminated about
an absent third party: i.e., gossiped was examined. Gossip scenarios
presented to participants (e.g., "Person-X cheated on their exam")
were based on three key factors: 1] target (ingroup, outgroup, or
celebrity), 2] valence (positive or negative), and 3] content. then
they had asked them (a) whether they would spread the information,
and b] to rate it according to subjective valence, ordinariness,
interest level, and emotion. For ratings, the scenarios participants
chose to gossip were considered to have higher valence (whether
positive or negative), to be rarer, more interesting, and more
emotionally evocative; thus, showing that the paradigm was
meaningful to subjects. Indeed, for target, valence, and content, a
repeated-measures ANOVA found significant effects for each factor
independently, as well as their interactions. The results supported
the hypotheses: e.g., for target, more gossiping about celebrities and
ingroup members (over strangers); for valence, more about negative
events overall, and yet for ingroup members, more positive
gossiping; for content, more about moral topics, with yet all domains
of social content communicated depending on the situation-context
matters, influencing needs. The findings suggest that social
knowledge sharing (i.e., gossip) involves sophisticated calculations
20
that require our highest sociocognitive abilities and provide specific
hypotheses for future examination of neural mechanisms (11).
Hess & Hagen (12) mentioned that those with better reputations
often obtain more resources than those with poorer reputations.
Consequently, gossip might be an evolved strategy to compete for
valuable and scarce material and social resources. Influenced by
models of non-human primate competition, the hypotheses were
tested that gossip: 1] targets aspects of reputation relevant to the
domain in which the competition is occurring, 2] increases when
contested resources are more valuable, and 3] increases when
resources are scarcer. Then hypotheses were tested derived from
informational warfare theory, which proposes that coalitions
strategically collect, analyze, and disseminate gossip. Specifically, it
was tested whether: 4] coalitions deter negative gossip, and 5]
whether they increase expectations of reputational harm to
competitors. Using experimental methods in a Mechanical Turk
sample (n=600), and survey and ego network analysis methods in a
sample of California sorority women (n=74), it was found that gossip
content is specific to the context of the competition; that more
valuable and scarcer resources cause gossip, particularly negative
gossip, to intensify; and that allies deter negative gossip and increase
expectations of reputational harm to an adversary. These results
support social competition theories of gossip. This article is part of
the theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and honest
signalling' (12).
Martinescu & al. (13) emphasized that ample experimental
evidence shows that negative gossip fosters cooperation in groups by
increasing individuals' reputational concerns. However, recent field
studies showed that negative gossip decreases organizational
citizenship behavior (OCB) among its targets (i.e., people whom
gossip is about). Bridging these findings, the role of social inclusion
was studied in explaining how negative gossip affects targets'
engagement in OCB. Based on social exchange theory, it was
predicted that targets of negative gossip experience low social
inclusion. In turn, it was proposed that low social inclusion leads to
low OCB of gossip targets. Results of three studies, a correlational
study (n=563), a laboratory experiment (n=85), and an online
scenario experiment (n=597), showed that being the target of
negative gossip reduced social inclusion and indirectly decreased
OCBs. The multi-method approach bridges findings from research
conducted in organizations and in laboratory experiments and offers
a more nuanced understanding of the effects of negative gossip on
targets' behavior. It was shown that due to its detrimental effect on
targets' social inclusion, negative gossip may not be as effective for
enabling sustainable cooperation as experimental studies claim it to
be (13).
Martinescu & al. (14) stated that gossip, or informal talk about
others who are not present, is omnipresent in daily interactions. As
such, people who are targeted are likely to hear some gossip about
themselves, which may have profound implications for their well-
being. The emotions and behavioral intentions of people who hear
performance-related gossip were investigated about themselves.
Based on the affective events theory, it was predicted that gossip
21
incidents have strong emotional consequences for their targets and
that these emotional responses trigger different behaviors. Two
scenario studies (n1= 226, Mage = 21.76; n2= 204, M age= 34.11) and a
critical incident study (n=240, M age = 37.04) compared targets'
responses to positive and negative gossip. Whereas targets of
positive gossip experienced positive self-conscious emotions (e.g.,
pride), targets of negative gossip experienced negative self-conscious
emotions (e.g., guilt), especially when they had low core self-
evaluations. In turn, these negative self-conscious emotions
predicted repair intentions. Positive gossip also led to positive other-
directed emotions (e.g., liking), which predicted intentions to affiliate
with the gossiper. Negative gossip, however, also generated other-
directed negative emotions (e.g., anger), especially for targets with
high reputational concerns, which in turn predicted retaliation
intentions against the gossiper. This pattern of emotional reactions
to self-relevant gossip was found to be unique and different from
emotional reactions to self-relevant feedback. These results show
that gossip has self-evaluative and other-directed emotional
consequences, which predict how people intend to behaviorally react
after hearing gossip about themselves (14).
Martinescu & al. (15) investigated the self-evaluative function of
competence-related gossip for individuals who receive it. Using the
Self-Concept Enhancing Tactician (SCENT) model, it was proposed
that individuals use evaluative information about others (i.e., gossip)
to improve, promote, and protect themselves. Results of a critical
incident study and an experimental study showed that positive gossip
had higher self-improvement value than negative gossip, whereas
negative gossip had higher self-promotion value and raised higher
self-protection concerns than positive gossip. Self-promotion
mediated the relationship between gossip valence and pride, while
self-protection mediated the relationship between gossip valence
and fear, although the latter mediated relationship emerged for
receivers with mastery goals rather than performance goals. These
results suggest that gossip serves self-evaluative functions for gossip
receivers and triggers self-conscious emotions (15).
Peng & al. (16) emphasized that in contrast to abstract trait words
which describe people's general personality, gossip is about personal
affairs of others. Although neural correlates underlying processing
self-related trait words have been well documented, it remains
poorly understood how the human brain processes gossip. In the
present fMRI study, participants were instructed to rate their online
emotional states upon hearing positive and negative gossip about
celebrities, themselves, and their best friends. Explicit behavioral
ratings suggested that participants were happier to hear positive
gossip and more annoyed to hear negative gossip about themselves
than about celebrities and best friends. At the neural level,
dissociated neural networks were involved in processing the positive
gossip about self and the negative gossip about celebrities. On the
one hand, the superior medial prefrontal cortex responded not only
to self-related gossip but also to moral transgressions, and neural
activity in the orbital prefrontal cortex increased linearly with
pleasure ratings on positive gossip about self. On the other hand,
although participants' ratings did not show they were particularly
22
happy on hearing negative gossip about celebrities, the significantly
enhanced neural activity in the reward system suggested that they
were indeed amused. Moreover, via enhanced functional
connectivity, the prefrontal executive control network was involved
in regulating the reward system by giving explicit pleasure ratings
according to social norm compliance, rather than natural true
feelings (16).
Giardini & al. (17) mentioned that when there is an opportunity
to gain a positive reputation, individuals are more willing to sacrifice
their immediate self-interest. Partner choice creates opportunities
for competitive altruism, i.e., individuals compete to be regarded as
more generous and to be chosen for future partnerships. Tests of
the competitive altruism hypothesis have focused so far on
reputation based on direct observation, whereas the role of gossip
has not been theoretically and empirically addressed. Partner choice
can create an incentive to cooperate and to send truthful messages,
but it can also work in the opposite direction. In order to understand
the consequences of partner choice on cooperation and gossip, an
experimental study was designed in which participants played a
sequence of Public Goods games and gossip rounds. In the two
treatments, it was observed that cooperation increased when there
was an opportunity to be selected, but also that cooperators sent
more honest messages than defectors, and that this strategy was
prevalent in the treatment in which inter-group competition was
implemented. It was also found evidence that participants detached
themselves from the information more often when lying. Taken
together, the study fills a theoretical and empirical gap by showing
that partner choice increases both cooperation and honesty of
gossip. This article is part of the theme issue 'The language of
cooperation: reputation and honest signalling' (17).
Engelmann & al. (18) mentioned that providing evaluative
information to others about absent third parties helps them to
identify cooperators and avoid cheaters. Here, it was shown that 5-
year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, reliably engage in such prosocial
gossip. In an experimental setting, 5-year-old children spontaneously
offered relevant reputational information to guide a peer towards a
cooperative partner. Three-year-old children offered such evaluative
information only rarely, although they still showed a willingness to
inform in a non-evaluative manner. A follow-up study revealed that
one component involved in this age difference is children's
developing ability to provide justifications. The current results
extend previous work on young children's tendency to manage their
own reputation by showing that preschoolers also influence others'
reputations via gossip (18).
Smith (19) noticed that although person perception is central to
virtually all human social behavior, it is ordinarily studied in isolated
individual perceivers. Conceptualizing it as a socially distributed
process opens up a variety of novel issues, which have been
addressed in scattered literatures mostly outside of social
psychology. This article examines some of these issues using a series
of multiagent models. Perceivers can use gossip (information from
others about social targets) to improve their ability to detect targets
who perform rare negative behaviors. The model suggests that they
23
can simultaneously protect themselves against being influenced by
malicious gossip intended to defame specific targets. They can
balance these potentially conflicting goals by using specific strategies
including disregarding gossip that differs from a personally obtained
impression. Multiagent modeling demonstrates the outcomes
produced by different combinations of assumptions about gossip and
suggests directions for further research and theoretical development
(19).
Hartung & al. (20) emphasized that gossip is an ubiquitous
phenomenon. Hearing information about others serves important
social functions such as learning without direct interaction and
observation. Despite important social functions gossip has a rather
negative reputation. Therefore, the present online study focuses on
the reasons why people gossip and how these reasons are related to
personality (i.e., dark triad) and situational settings. Six distinct
motives were identified that underlie gossip behavior: information
validation, information gathering, relationship building, protection,
social enjoyment, and negative influence. The most important
motive was validating information about the gossip target followed
by the motive to acquire new information about the gossip target.
The least important motive was harming the gossip target. The
motivational pattern was highly similar between private and work
context. Interestingly, the importance of motives mainly depends on
the gossiper's narcissism both in work and in private settings. The
findings suggest that the negative reputation of gossip is not justified.
In fact, even "dark" personalities appear to use gossip to tune their
picture of other humans and themselves and not to harm others (20).
Glenwright & al. (21) emphasized that speakers use sarcasm to
criticize others and to be funny; the indirectness of sarcasm protects
the addressee's face (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Thus, appreciation of
sarcasm depends on the ability to consider perspectives.
Development of this ability was investigated from late childhood into
adulthood and examined effects of interpretive perspective and
parties present. The Authors presented 9- to 10-year-olds, 13- to 14-
year-olds, and adults with sarcastic and literal remarks in three
parties-present conditions: private evaluation, public evaluation, and
gossip. Participants interpreted the speaker's attitude and humor
from the addressee's perspective and, when appropriate, from the
bystander's perspective. Children showed no influence of
interpretive perspective or parties present on appreciation of the
speaker's attitude or humor. Adolescents and adults, however,
shifted their interpretations, judging that addressees have less
favorable views of criticisms than bystanders. Further, adolescents
and adults differed in their perceptions of the social functions of
gossip, with adolescents showing more positive attitudes than adults
toward sarcastic gossip. The data show that adults' disapproval of
sarcastic gossip shows a deeper understanding of the utility of
sarcasm's face-saving function. Thus, the ability to modulate
appreciation of sarcasm according to interpretive perspective and
parties present continues to develop in adolescence and into
adulthood (21).
Sommerfeld & al. (22) stated that empirical and theoretical
evidence from various disciplines indicates that reputation,
24
reputation building, and trust are important for human cooperation,
social behavior and economic progress. Recently, it has been shown
that reputation gained in games of indirect reciprocity can be
transmitted by gossip. But it has also been shown that gossiping has
a strong manipulative potential. It was proposed that this
manipulative potential is alleviated by the abundance of gossip.
Multiple gossip statements give a better picture of the actual
behavior of a person, and thus inaccurate or fake gossip has little
power as long as it is in the minority. In addition, it was investigated
the supposedly strong connection between reciprocity, reputation,
and trust. The results of this experimental study (with 11 groups of
12 students each) document that gossip quantity helps to direct
cooperation towards cooperators. Moreover, reciprocity, trust and
reputations transferred via gossip are positively correlated. This
interrelation might have helped to reach the high levels of
cooperation that can be observed in humans (22).
Chan & al. (23) mentioned that consumers frequently encounter
moral violations in everyday life. They watch movies and television
shows about crime and deception, hear news reports of corporate
fraud and tax evasion, and hear gossip about cheaters and thieves.
How does exposure to moral violations influence consumption?
Because moral violations arouse disgust and because disgust is an
evolutionarily important signal of contamination that should provoke
a multi-modal response, it was hypothesized that moral violations
affect a key behavioral response to disgust: reduced oral
consumption. In three experiments, compared with those in control
conditions, people drank less water and chocolate milk while 1]
watching a film portraying the moral violations of incest, 2] writing
about moral violations of cheating or theft, and 3] listening to a
report about fraud and manipulation. These findings imply that
"moral disgust" influences consumption in ways similar to core
disgust, and thus provide evidence for the associations between
moral violations, emotions, and consumer behavior (23).
Molho & Wu (24) noticed that punishment and reputation-based
mechanisms play a major role in supporting the evolution of human
cooperation. Theoretical accounts and field observations suggest
that humans use multiple tactics to intervene against offences-
including confrontation, gossip, and ostracism - which have unique
benefits and costs. Here, a distinction between was drawn direct
punishment tactics (i.e., physical, and verbal confrontation) and
indirect reputation-based tactics (i.e., gossip and ostracism). Based
on this distinction, the common and unique social functions that
different tactics are tailored were sketched to serve and describe
information-processing mechanisms that potentially underlie
decisions concerning how to intervene against offences. It was
proposed that decision rules guiding direct and indirect tactics should
weigh information about the benefits of changing others' behavior
versus the costs of potential retaliation. Based on a synthesis of
existing evidence, the role of situational, relational, and emotional
factors were highlighted in motivating distinct punishment tactics. It
is suggested that delineating between direct and indirect tactics can
inform debates about the prevalence and functions of punishment
and the reputational consequences of third-party intervention
25
against offences. It is emphasized the need to study how people use
reputation-based tactics for partn er recalibration and partner
choice, within interdependent relationships and social networks, and
in daily life situations. This article is part of the theme issue 'The
language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling (24).
Gregg (25) noticed that rumors and gossip are inevitable
ingredients of work life. Within limits, they may have some beneficial
functions. Still, practitioners and managers must be aware of the
dangers inherent in defamation of character and harassment. This
article defines workplace comments and activities that should be
avoided and the employer's legal liability when situations get out of
hand. It also outlines the manager's responsibilities and lists privacy
rights that are codified by state and federal laws (25).
Gross & De Dreu (26) mentioned that humans exhibit a
remarkable capacity for cooperation among genetically unrelated
individuals. Yet, human cooperation is neither universal, nor stable.
Instead, cooperation is often bounded to members of particular
groups, and such groups endogenously form or break apart.
Cooperation networks are parochial and under constant
reconfiguration. Here, it was demonstrated how parochial
cooperation networks endogenously emerge as a consequence of
simple reputation heuristics people may use when deciding to
cooperate or defect. These reputation heuristics, such as "a friend of
a friend is a friend" and "the enemy of a friend is an enemy" further
lead to the dynamic formation and fission of cooperative groups,
accompanied by a dynamic rise and fall of cooperation among
agents. The ability of humans to safeguard kin-independent
cooperation through gossip and reputation may be, accordingly,
closely interlinked with the formation of group-bounded cooperation
networks that are under constant reconfiguration, ultimately
preventing global and stable cooperation (26).
Cohain (27) mentioned that the belief that hospital birth for low-
risk pregnancies has better outcomes than planned, attended
homebirth is an urban legend. The choice of low-risk women to
deliver in hospital is a result of the dominant and irrational human
propensities to gossip, to follow the crowd and to cling to irrational
hope. Rational analysis shows that planned homebirth with
experienced trained attendants has the best outcomes for both
mother and newborn for low-risk pregnancy (27).
James (28) mentioned that women often seek midwifery care as
an alternative to the maternity services that are readily available
within the insured health care system in Alberta. Some aspects of
community-based, primary care midwifery in Alberta that
characterize this alternative are the use of storytelling as a form of
knowledge, the development of social connections among women
seeking midwifery care, and nonauthoritarian relationships between
midwives and women. In this paper, the concept of confidentiality, as
it relates to these aspects of midwifery practice, is explored, using
traditional, caring and feminist models of ethic (28).
Komiya & al. (29) examined rural-urban differences in
interpersonal regret. In Study 1, participants who grew up in rural
areas reported stronger interpersonal regret than those who grew up
in large cities. In Study 2, an experiment was conducted, and it was
26
found that participants who were assigned to imagine a rural life
reported greater interpersonal regret than those who were assigned
to imagine an urban life. Moreover, this rural-urban difference was
mediated by the degree to which participants wrote about informal
social control such as gossip and reputation concerns. Finally, in
Study 3, the pictorial eye manipulation, which evokes a concern for
informal social control was used, and it was found that participants
from large cities who were exposed to the eyes reported more
intense interpersonal regret than those who were not exposed to the
eyes. Together, these studies demonstrate that informal social
control is a key to understanding rural-urban differences in
interpersonal regret (29).
Jayawardhana (30) noticed that The Hague, Netherlands, last
month welcomed 2000 astronomers from around the world for the
22nd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union
(IAU). From 15 to 27 August, they participated in symposia and
discussions on topics ranging from the down-to-Earth issue of light
and radio-frequency pollution to the creation of elements at the
farthest reaches of time and space, in the big bang. Some of the
most striking news, however, came in new findings from our galaxy
and its immediate surroundings (30).
Siyahhan & al. (31) surveyed 419 Turkish middle school students
(203 girls, 216 boys) on their exposure to and engagement in
bullying, and their level of hopelessness. The findings suggest that
girls were victims of indirect (e.g., gossiping) bullying more than boys.
Boys reported being victims of physical (e.g., damaging property) and
verbal (e.g., teasing) bullying more than girls. While the level of
hopelessness among victims of physical and verbal bullying was
higher than non-victims, no difference was found between the
victims of indirect bullying and non-victims. Students who never
talked to their teachers and parents about bullying reported higher
levels of hopelessness than others. The implications of the study for
intervention and prevention programs are discussed (31).
Ross (32) mentioned that Guala notes that low-cost punishment is
the main mechanism that deters free riding in small human
communities. This mechanism is complemented by unusual human
vulnerability to gossip. Defenders of an evolutionary discontinuity
supporting human sociality might seize on this as an alternative to
enjoyment of moralistic aggression as a special adaptation. However,
the more basic adaptation of language likely suffices (32).
This chapter (1-32) shows various faces of gossip occurring in our
lives.
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TYPES
This section deals with various types of gossips, including
workplace gossip, healthcare, childhood/adolescents nursing, social
dimensions, AIDS/HIV, COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis, sexually
transmitted infections, cancer, communication, communication
technologies, school, sex practices, child sexual abuse, and mental
care.
WORKPLACE GOSSIP
Mary Gormandy White, a human resource expert, gives the
following "signs" for identifying workplace gossip (1):
• Animated people become silent ("Conversations stop when
you enter the room")
• People begin staring at someone
• Workers indulge in inappropriate topics of conversation
White suggests five tips ... [to] handle the situation with aplomb:
1. Rise above the gossip
2. Understand what causes or fuels the gossip
3. Do not participate in workplace gossip.
4. Allow for the gossip to go away on its own
5. If it persists, "gather facts and seek help
Peter Vajda identifies gossip as a form of workplace violence,
noting that it is "essentially a form of attack." Gossip is thought by
many to "empower one person while disempowering another"
(Hafen). Accordingly, many companies have formal policies in their
employee handbooks against gossip (2). Sometimes there is room for
disagreement on exactly what constitutes unacceptable gossip, since
workplace gossip may take the form of offhand remarks about
29
someone's tendencies such as "He always takes a long lunch," or
"Don’t worry, that’s just how she is" (3).
TLK Healthcare cites as examples of gossip, "tattletaling to the
boss without intention of furthering a solution or speaking to co-
workers about something someone else has done to upset us."
Corporate email can be a particularly dangerous method of gossip
delivery, as the medium is semi-permanent and messages are easily
forwarded to unintended recipients; accordingly, a Mass High Tech
article advised employers to instruct employees against using
company email networks for gossip (4). Low self-esteem and a desire
to "fit in" are frequently cited as motivations for workplace gossip (5)
and so here are five essential functions that gossip has in the
workplace (according to DiFonzo & Bordia):
• Helps individuals learn social information about other
individuals in the organization (often without even having to
meet the other individual)
• Builds social networks of individuals by bonding co-workers
together and affiliating people with each other
• Breaks existing bonds by ostracizing individuals within an
organization
• enhances one's social status/power/prestige within the
organization
• Inform individuals as to what is considered socially
acceptable behavior within the organization
According to Kurkland and Pelled (6), workplace gossip can be
very serious depending upon the amount of power that the gossiper
has over the recipient, which will in turn affect how the gossip is
interpreted. There are four types of power that are influenced by
gossip:
• Coercive: when a gossiper tells negative information about a
person, their recipient might believe that the gossiper will
also spread negative information about them. This causes the
gossiper's coercive power to increase
• Reward: when a gossiper tells positive information about a
person, their recipient might believe that the gossiper will
also spread positive information about them. This causes the
gossiper's reward power to increase
• Expert: when a gossiper seems to have very detailed
knowledge of either the organization's values or about others
in the work environment, their expert power becomes
enhanced
• Referent: this power can either be reduced OR enhanced to a
point. When people view gossiping as a petty activity done to
waste time, a gossiperces referent power can decrease along
with their reputation. When a recipient is thought of as being
invited into a social circle by being a recipient, the gossiper's
referent power can increase, but only to a high point where
then the recipient begins to resent the gossiper (Kurland &
Pelled)
Some negative consequences of workplace gossip may include (7):
• Lost productivity and wasted time
• Erosion of trust and morale
30
• Increased anxiety among employees as rumors circulate
without any clear information as to what is fact and what
isn’t
• Growing divisiveness among employees as people “take
sides"
• Hurt feelings and reputations
• Jeopardized chances for the gossipers' advancement as they
are perceived as unprofessional, and
• Attrition as good employees leave the company due to the
unhealthy work atmosphere
Turner and Weed theorize that among the three main types of
responders to workplace conflict are attackers who cannot keep their
feelings to themselves and express their feelings by attacking
whatever they can. Attackers are further divided into up-front
attackers and behind-the-back attackers. Turner and Weed note that
the latter "are difficult to handle because the target person is not
sure of the source of any criticism, nor even always sure that there is
criticism" (8).
It is possible however, that there may be illegal, unethical, or
disobedient behavior happening at the workplace and this may be a
case where reporting the behavior may be viewed as gossip. It is then
left up to the authority in charge to fully investigate the matter and
not simply look past the report and assume it to be workplace gossip
(6).
Informal networks through which communication occurs in an
organization are sometimes called the grapevine. In a study done by
Harcourt, Richerson, and Wattier, it was found that middle managers
in several different organizations believed that gathering information
from the grapevine was a much better way of learning information
than through formal communication with their subordinates
(Harcourt, Richerson & Wattier) (6).
Einarsen & Raknes (9) mentioned that harassment and
victimization among male workers were studied in a sample of 460
industrial workers, supervisors and managers within a Norwegian
marine engineering industry. The results indicated that aggression
and harassment are significant problems in this organizational
setting. On a weekly basis, 7% of the men reported being subjected
to at least one of the following behaviors from coworkers or
supervisors: ridicule and insulting teasing, verbal abuse, rumors, and
gossips spread about themselves, offending remarks, recurring
reminders on blunders, hostility or silence when entering a
conversation, or the devaluing of one's effort and work. As many as
22% reported being subjected to one or more of these acts at least
monthly. Although such acts and conducts are common and
experienced by most organization members now and then, they may
significantly impair psychological health and well-being as well as
overall job satisfaction when occurring consistently and
systematically. Significant correlations were found between
exposure to harassment and both job satisfaction and psychological
health and well-being. Strong correlations were found between
exposure to harassment and dissatisfaction with co-worker
interaction (9).
31
Begemann & (10) mentioned that even though gossip is a
ubiquitous organizational behavior that fulfils important social
functions (e.g., social bonding or emotion venting), little is known
about how workplace gossip and its functions unfold in situ. To
explore the dynamic nature and social embeddedness of workplace
gossip, a behavioral annotation system that captures the manifold
characteristics of verbal gossip behavior was developed, including its
valence and underlying functions. This system was applied to eight
elderly care team meetings audio- and videotaped in the field,
yielding a sample of n= 4,804 annotated behaviors. On this empirical
basis, we provide first insights into the different facets and functions
of workplace gossip in real-life team interactions. By means of lag
sequential analysis, gossip patterns that point to the temporal and
structural embeddedness of different types of workplace gossip
expressions were quantified. Though exploratory, these findings help
establish workplace gossip as a dynamic conversational event. Future
interdisciplinary research collaborations that behavioral observation
approaches offer is discussed (10).
Zong & al. (11) mentioned that researchers have been interested
in discussing negative workplace gossip and its consequences but
have paid little attention to positive workplace gossip and its positive
aspects in the workplace. Based on the perspective of social
network, this study explores the two-path mediating mechanisms
between positive workplace gossip and the socialization outcomes of
newcomers. The data were collected in a multitime and multisource
manner. The results show that information ties and friendship ties
mediated the relationship between positive workplace gossip and the
socialization outcomes of newcomers. Specifically, positive
workplace gossip helped newcomers form instrumental and
expressive social relationships (viz., informational ties and friendship
ties), which in turn contributed to socialization outcomes (viz., role
clarity and social integration). Theoretical and management
implications are discussed as well (11).
Bashir & al. (12) emphasized that workplace incivility is a
common phenomenon that is frequently found across all
organizations and cultures. This study was planned to investigate the
impact of workplace incivility on job and non-job-related gossips
through the mediating role of cynicism and psychological contract
violation. The perspective of low-ranked unionized employees was
explored through a survey method by using stratified sampling in
eight strata, which were formulated based on geographical
distribution. A total of four hundred questionnaires were distributed
among the employees of eight circles, 50 from each, while use able
responses remained 301. SmartPLS was used to analyze the data
through structural equation modeling. From a theoretical
perspective, this study has made several contributions by
investigating the impact of workplace incivility in the South Asian
context and documenting the impact of incivility from the
perspective of individuals belonging to minority socio-cultural status.
Besides supporting existing literature, this study provided a unique
argument that low-ranked employees in South Asian societies do not
spread nonjob-related gossips. This finding is contradictory to the
32
existing literature; and, thus, calls for future research to identify this
inconsistency (12).
Jiang & al. (13) mentioned that although previous research has
documented a host of negative consequences of job insecurity,
workplace interpersonal relationships have rarely been considered.
This omission might be caused by the application of broad stress
theories to the job insecurity literature without taking a nuanced
perspective to understand the nature of job insecurity. To address
this issue, job insecurity is conceptualized as a threat to employee
social acceptance by their employer. This conceptualization,
therefore, allows us to apply the multimotive model of social
rejection to investigate a previously overlooked outcome of job
insecurity-workplace friendships. Specifically, the relationship was
investigated between both job feature insecurity and job loss
insecurity with workplace friendships. Based on stress coping theory
and the fundamental differences between job feature insecurity and
job loss insecurity, it was further proposed that employees' tendency
to engage in positive gossip buffers the negative impact of job
feature insecurity on workplace friendships, whereas employees'
tendency to engage in negative gossip buffers the negative impact of
job loss insecurity on workplace friendships. Data collected from 286
working adults from Mturk supported the hypotheses. The study
opens the door for future research to take a more nuanced approach
when examining nontraditional consequences of job insecurity (13).
Wang & al. (14) reported that from the perspective of social
information processing theory and social identity theory, 1,267
employees were selected as the subjects, and the data were
statistically analyzed by using Mplus8.0 and SPSS25.0 to explore the
relationship between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction
and the role of job insecurity and organizational identity in this
relationship. The results showed that there was a significant positive
correlation between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction.
Furthermore, job insecurity and organizational identity
independently mediated the relationship between positive workplace
gossip and employee job satisfaction. In addition, job insecurity and
organizational identity played a serial mediating role in the
relationship between positive workplace gossip and job satisfaction.
The results of the study shed light on how job insecurity and
organizational identity were associated with the process of the
positive workplace gossip-job satisfaction relationship. Based on the
findings, implications and avenues for future research were discussed
(14).
Zeng & Zhao (15) mentioned that previous studies on negative
workplace gossip have neglected the role of gossip targets of
supervisors. The purpose of this paper is to deepen our
understanding of how subordinates' negative workplace gossip
affects supervisors' work-related behaviors. Drawing upon
conservation of resource theory, the authors propose that
subordinates' negative gossip leads to supervisor emotional
exhaustion. In turn, such emotional exhaustion provokes supervisors
to exhibit undermining toward their subordinates. Additionally, the
authors propose that a trait factor, namely, supervisor mindfulness,
mitigates the relationship between such negative workplace gossip
33
and supervisors' emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from
employees (e.g., subordinates) and their immediate supervisors in 35
organizations located in Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces in China. The
data were obtained at three time points, each time interval was 2
weeks, and finally, 362 valid data points were obtained. The
following findings were obtained: 1] perceived subordinates' negative
gossip has a significant positive effect on supervisor undermining; 2]
supervisor emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between
perceived subordinates' negative gossip and supervisor undermining;
and 3] supervisor mindfulness moderates the relationship between
perceived subordinates' negative gossip and supervisor emotional
exhaustion and moderates the mediating effect of supervisor
emotional exhaustion on the relationship between perceived
subordinates' negative gossip and supervisor undermining. The data
demonstrate that using multisource data and a moderated mediation
model, it was found that subordinates' negative workplace gossip
predicts supervisor undermining through supervisor emotional
exhaustion. It was also discovered that supervisor mindfulness can
buffer the positive relationship between perceived subordinates'
negative workplace gossip and supervisor undermining. These
findings have important implications for the literature on negative
gossip in the workforce, especially the impact of subordinates'
negative workplace gossip on supervisors' responses (15).
Zong & al. (16) investigated the coping response of individuals
who are being gossiped about. Drawing on face research and
affective events theory, the Authors propose that employees who are
targets of negative gossip will actively respond to the gossip about
them via engagement in negative gossip themselves. The findings
showed that negative workplace gossip stimulated fear of losing face
and led to subsequent behavioral responses, namely, engaging in
negative gossip. Moreover, self-monitoring, as a moderating
mechanism, mitigated the negative impacts of negative workplace
gossip on the targets. Theoretical implications were discussed for
gossip research and note its important practical implications (16).
Cheng & al. (17) stated that research has demonstrated the
effects of workplace gossip on employees' work attitudes and
behaviors. However, little emphasis has been placed on the
psychological influence of workplace gossip on employees. The
present study investigated the relationships among workplace gossip,
psychological capital, and individual mental health. Data were
collected in three waves from 222 full-time employees of a
Taiwanese tourism company to explore the effect of workplace
gossip on employees' mental health. The results suggested that
workplace gossip was associated with employees' mental health
through psychological capital. Moreover, developmental job
experience plays a moderator role in the relationships among
workplace gossip, psychological capital, and mental health. A
moderated mediation model was also proposed in this study (17).
Estévez & Takács (18) stated that brokerage is a central concept in
the organization literature. It has been argued that individuals in
broker positions-i.e., connecting otherwise disconnected parts within
a firm's social network-can control the flow of information. It would
imply their increased relevance in workplace gossip. This allegation,
34
however, has not been addressed empirically yet. To fill this gap,
social network analysis techniques were applied to relational data
from six organizations in Hungary. First, informal groups and
individuals are identified in broker positions. Then, this information
was used to predict the likelihood with which positive or negative
gossip is reported. It was found more gossip when the sender and
receiver are part of the same group and more positive gossip about
in-group rather than out-group targets. Individuals in broker
positions are more likely the senders and targets of negative gossip.
Finally, even if both the brokers and the boss(es) are the targets of
their colleagues' negative gossip, the combination of the two
categories (bosses in broker positions) does not predict more
negative gossip anymore. Results are discussed in relation to the
theoretical accounts on brokerage that emphasize its power for
information control but fail to recognize the pitfalls of being in such
positions (18).
Dai & al. (19) examined the role of positive workplace gossip
(PWG) in employee innovative behavior, whereby a mediating effect
of employee loyalty is proposed in this relationship. The moderating
effect of organizational trust (OT) is also examined on the indirect of
PWG on employee innovative behavior through employee loyalty.
This research used a survey data of 327 employees from the
enterprises selected from the Pearl River and Yangtze River Delta
region of China. Based on the literature review, five main hypotheses
were formulated and explored. The SPSS-Process Macro Plugin was
used to analyze the hypothesized model. Results show there is a
positive and significant relationship between PWG and employee
innovative behavior. This study also confirm that employee loyalty is
an intervening variable and OT as a moderator. Organizations should
pay more attention to workplace gossip phenomena, encourage
employees to take appropriate part in positive workplace gossip and
to communicate positive information about other colleagues, and
build an inclusive, open, sincere, and interdependent platform in the
organization. The data show that employee innovative behavior
plays an essential role in organization's survival and development.
Few studies have investigated PWG may promote employee
innovative behavior through employee loyalty. The data, model, and
findings of this research address the gap and complement the current
state of knowledge (19).
Chism (20) noticed that office gossip, power struggles, employee
burnout, and short fuses are becoming more the rule than the
exception in running a medical practice. The difficult conversation
avoided today can turn into the lawsuit 15 years later. Managers
often find it hard to confront high performers and authority figures in
the workplace. In order to deal with disruptive behavior and incivility
before it ruins the medical practice, practice managers should
institute the four steps outlined in this article plus the Vow of
Personal Responsibility to improve clarity, teamwork, and personal
performance (20).
Liu & al. (21) emphasized that existing research has found that
workplace negative gossip exerts a negative impact on employees
and organizations. However, there is a lack of study on the spillover
effect of workplace negative gossip on employees' families. This
35
paper aimed to address this gap in prior literature. Based on
resource conservation theory, married employees who perceived or
suffered from workplace negative gossip were chosen as the subjects
and analyzed the effect of workplace negative gossip on their work-
family conflict. A self-reported questionnaire was adopted to assess
employees' perception or experience of workplace negative gossip,
psychological distress, level of neuroticism, and work-family conflicts.
A total of 245 valid employee questionnaires were obtained from
two-wave data collection in China. The results of the empirical
analysis indicated that workplace negative gossip perceived or
suffered by employees has a positive impact on their work-family
conflicts, and psychological distress plays a mediating role in the
relationship between perceived or suffered workplace negative
gossip and employees' work-family conflict. Furthermore, it was
found that employees' level of neuroticism moderates the positive
effect of workplace negative gossip and work-family conflict, and it
also moderates the mediating effect of workplace negative gossip on
employees' work-family conflict by psychological distress. The
conclusion of this paper supported the previous hypotheses. Finally,
according to the earlier findings, the theoretical contributions,
practical significance, and limitations of the study and provided some
practical suggestions for managers were discussed (21).
Kong (22) emphasized that negative workplace gossip generates
social undermining and great side effects to employees. But the
damage of negative gossip is mainly aimed at the employee who
perceived being targeted. The purpose of this study is to develop a
conceptual model in which perceived negative workplace gossip
influences employees in-role behavior and organizational citizenship
behavior differentially by changing employees' self-concept
(organizational-based self-esteem and perceived insider status). 336
employees from seven Chinese companies were investigated for
empirical analysis on proposed hypotheses, and results show that: 1]
Perceived negative workplace gossip adversely influences employees'
IRB and OCB. 2] Self-concept (OBSE and PIS) plays a mediating role in
the relationship between perceived negative workplace gossip and
employees' behaviors (IRB and OCB). 3] Employees' hostile
attribution bias moderates the relationship between perceived
negative workplace gossip and self-concept (OBSE and PIS); and also
moderates the mediating effect of self-concept (OBSE and PIS) on the
relationship between perceived negative workplace gossip and
employees' behaviors (IRB and OCB). Thus, the findings provide
deeper insights into the potential harmful effects of gossip. In
addition, it is helped to explain the underlying mechanism and
boundary condition of these effects (22).
Song & Guo (23) reported that the level of organizational self-
esteem of employees, whether on the production line or as managers
or directors of enterprises, does not only correlate with individual
performance but has also become a key factor in determining the
completion of team core tasks. Based on the theory of self-
consistency, this study explores the correlation between negative
workplace gossip and employees' organizational self-esteem by
revealing the intermediary role of workplace exclusion and poor-
order atmosphere. A survey of 228 employees from enterprises in
36
Shandong and Shanghai showed that negative workplace gossip
exerted a significant negative impact on employees' organizational
self-esteem, suggesting that negative workplace gossip reduces
employees' organizational self-esteem in the context of Chinese
organizations. In addition, workplace exclusion exerted a complete
intermediary effect between negative workplace gossip and
employees' organizational self-esteem, and poor-order atmosphere
perception played a partial intermediary role. This study uncovers
the black box that negative workplace gossip affects employees'
organizational self-esteem and has a strong enlightening significance
for management practice (23).
Guo & al. (24) mentioned that previous studies on negative
workplace gossip have neglected the role of gossip receivers. The
current study aims to explore the interpersonal interaction
mechanism between gossip receivers and communicators. Drawing
on social information processing theory, a theoretical model was
proposed for the relationships between negative workplace gossip,
psychological safety, ostracism, and coworker-exchanges. Multi-
wave data of 386 employees from eight service-oriented companies
in China supported the proposed framework. Critical incident
techniques and time-lag method were used for data collection. SPSS
and Mplus were employed for hypothesis test. The empirical results
indicated that negative workplace gossip was positively related to
gossip receivers' ostracism (sender-oriented), among which receivers'
psychological safety (sender-oriented) played a mediating role. In
addition, the coworker exchange relationship moderated the
relationship between negative workplace gossip and ostracism, and
the psychological safety of interviewees also plays a mediating role.
Specifically, the effect of negative workplace gossip on psychological
safety and the mediating effect of psychological safety were stronger
when the coworker exchange relationship was higher. The data show
that drawing on social information processing theory, the present
study constructed a process model of the recipients' sender-oriented
ostracism reactions to negative workplace gossip, which helps explain
the cognitive psychological mechanism and the boundary conditions
of the above "perception-interpretation-behavior" social information
process model. The above framework contributes to both theory and
practice (24).
Farley & al. (25) examined perceptions of female gossipers in the
workplace. Male and female participants (n=129) were asked to think
of a woman who either frequently or rarely contributed negative
information about other people during conversation. Participants
then completed ratings on the target using the six dimensions of the
FIRO-B. As predicted, high gossipers were perceived as having a
greater need to exert control of others, but less need for others to
control them, than low gossipers. Higher gossipers were also
perceived as less emotionally warm than low gossipers. The
implications of these findings for gossip research are presented (25).
Humphrey-Murto & al. (26) stated that learner handover is the
sharing of information about learners between faculty supervisors.
Learner handover can support longitudinal assessment in rotation-
based systems, but there are concerns that the practice could bias
future assessments or stigmatize struggling learners. Because
37
successful implementation relies on an understanding of existing
practices and beliefs, the purpose of this study was to explore how
faculty perceive and enact learner handover in the workplace. Using
constructivist grounded theory, 23 semi structured interviews were
conducted with faculty from 2 Canadian universities between August
and December 2018. Participants were asked to describe their
learner handover practices, including learner handover delivered or
received about resident and student trainees either within or
between clinical rotations. The Authors probed to understand why
faculty used learner handover and their perceptions of its benefits
and risks. Learner handover occurs both formally and informally and
serves multiple purposes for learners and faculty. While participants
reported that learner handover was motivated by both learner
benefit and patient safety, they primarily described motivations
focused on their own needs. Learner handover was used to improve
faculty efficiency by focusing teaching and feedback and was
perceived as a "self-defense mechanism" when faculty were
uncertain about a learner's competence and trustworthiness.
Informal learner handover also served social or therapeutic purposes
when faculty used these conversations to gossip, vent, or manage
insecurities about their assessment of learner performance. Because
of its multiple, sometimes unsanctioned purposes, participants
recommended being reflective about motivations behind learner
handover conversations. The data show that learners are not the
only potential beneficiaries of learner handover; faculty use learner
handover to lessen insecurities surrounding entrustment and
assessment of learners and to openly share their frustrations. The
latter created tensions for faculty needing to share stresses but
wanting to act professionally. Formal education policies regarding
learner handover should consider faculty perspectives (26).
References
1. Jeanne Grunert. When Gossip Strikes. OfficePro. 2010, pp. 16-18,
at 17, found at IAAP website. Available at www.iaap-
hq.org/404.aspx?404;http://www.iaap-hq.org:80/publications/officepro/
opfliparchive/janfeb2010/pageflip.html.
2. New Jersey Hearsay Evidence. Wayback Machine, Human Resource
Blog. Available at web.archive.org/web/20080118184312/
http://www.humanresourceblog.com/2007/11/16/new-jersey-hearsay-
evidence.
3. The Culture Shock. Wayback Machine. Tami Kyle, TLK Connections,
Summer 2005. Available at web.archive.org/web/20071127130901
/http://www.tlkhealthcare.com/files/uploads/newsletter2005.
4. Companies must spell out employee e-mail policies, Warren E. Agin,
Swiggart & Agin, LLC, Mass High Tech, November 18, 1996.
5. GOSSIP 99 | Gossip Lanka News | Hot Gossips | Sri Lankan Exclusive
News | Gossip Lanka. In Gossip. Available at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
6. Gossip. Available at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gossip.
7. Workplace Gossip. The Wayback Machine. Kit Hennessy, LPC, CEAP.
Available at uvafeap.com/newsletters/workplace-gossip.pdf.
8. Conflict in organizations: Practical solutions any manager can use;
Turner, Stephen P. (University of South Florida); Weed, Frank; 1983.
9. Einarsen S, Raknes BI. Harassment in the workplace and the
victimization of men. Violence Vict. 1997;12(3):247-63.
38
10. Begemann V, Lübstorf S, Meinecke AL, et al. Capturing workplace
gossip as dynamic conversational events: first insights from care team
meetings. Front Psychol. 2021 Oct 12;12:725720.
11. Zong B, Zhang L, Chu X, Qu J. Does positive workplace gossip help
socialize newcomers? A dual-pathway model based on network ties.
Psych J. 2021;10(5):767-76.
12. Bashir M, Shabbir R, Saleem S, et al. Job-related and nonjob-
related gossips among low-ranked employees in Unionized Service
Organization. Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 11;11:994.
13. Jiang L, Xu X, Hu X. Can gossip buffer the effect of job insecurity on
workplace friendships? Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Apr
10;16(7):1285.
14. Wang D, Niu Z, Sun C, et al. The relationship between positive
workplace gossip and job satisfaction: The mediating role of job insecurity
and organizational identity. Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 28;13:989380.
15. Zeng H, Zhao L, Li J. Why does subordinates' negative workplace
gossip lead to supervisor undermining? A moderated mediation model.
Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 29;13:981539.
16. Zong B, Xu S, Zhang L, Qu J. Dealing with negative workplace
gossip: from the perspective of face. Front Psychol. 2021 Jun 3;12:629376.
17. Cheng S, Kuo C-C, Chen H-C, et al. Effects of workplace gossip on
employee mental health: a moderated mediation model of psychological
capital and developmental job experience. Front Public Health. 2022 Apr
12;10:791902.
18. Estévez JL, Takács K. Brokering or sitting between two chairs? A
group perspective on workplace gossip. Front Psychol. 2022 Jul
8;13:815383.
19. Dai Y, Zhuo X, Hou J, Lyu B. Is not workplace gossip bad? The
effect of positive workplace gossip on employee innovative behavior.
Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 24;13:1017202.
20. Chism M. Maintain workplace civility by sharing the vow of
personal responsibility. J Med Pract Manage. 2012;28(1):51-3.
21. Liu T, Wu L, Yang Y, Jia Y. Work-to-family spillover effects of
workplace negative gossip: a mediated moderation model. Front Psychol.
2020 Jul 22;11:1612.
22. Kong M. Effect of perceived negative workplace gossip on
employees' behaviors. Front Psychol. 2018 Jul 12;9:1112. Erratum in
Front Psychol. 2019 Jan 11;9:2728.
23. Song X, Guo S. The impact of negative workplace gossip on
employees' organizational self-esteem in a differential atmosphere. Front
Psychol. 2022 Jun 17;13:854520.
24. Guo G, Gong Q, Li S, Xuedong Liang X. Don't speak ill of others
behind their backs: receivers' ostracism (sender-oriented) reactions to
negative workplace gossip. Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2021;14:1-16.
25. Farley SD, Timme DR, Hart JW. On coffee talk and break-room
chatter: perceptions of women who gossip in the workplace. J Soc
Psychol. 2010;150(4):361-8.
26. Humphrey-Murto S, Lingard L, Varpio L, et al. Learner handover:
who is it really for? Acad Med. 2021;96(4):592-8.
HEALTH CARE
Waddington (1) argued that gossip is a neglected aspect of
organizational communication and knowledge, and an under-used
management resource. The paper challenges mainstream
managerial assumptions that gossip is trivial or tainted talk which
should be discouraged in the workplace. Instead, gossip is re-framed
39
at an organizational level of analysis, which provides the opportunity
for relational knowledge about systemic failure and poor practice in
healthcare to surface. Rather than simply viewing gossip as an
individual behavior and interpersonal process, it is claimed that
organizational gossip is also a valuable early warning indicator of risk
and failure in healthcare systems. There is potentially significant
value in re-framing gossip as an aspect of organizational
communication and knowledge. If attended to (rather than
neglected or silenced) gossip can provide fresh insights into
professional practice, decision making and relational leadership. This
paper offers a provocative challenge to mainstream health
organization and management thinking about gossip in the
workplace. It offers new ways of thinking to promote patient safety
and prevent the scandals that have plagued healthcare organizations
in recent years (1).
Bradby (2) considered how young people able to trace their
origins from Pakistan or India (henceforth 'Asians'), discuss their use
of, or abstention from, alcohol and tobacco in terms of religious and
cultural tradition. The role of religion, ethnicity, gender and
generation in the uptake or avoidance of alcohol and tobacco was
explored in 19 qualitative group and individual interviews with 47
Asians aged 16-26 years and analyzed in terms of pioneering and
conservative forms of tradition. Religious proscriptions on alcohol
and tobacco were reported to be formally gender blind, but concerns
about reputation and future marriage chances, sanctioned by gossip,
meant that women's behavior was consistently more constrained
than men. Muslims' abstinence from alcohol was tightly linked with
an Islamic identity in that drinking jeopardized one's claim to being a
Muslim, whereas cigarette smoking was tolerated among young men.
Sikhs' and Hindus' avoidance of tobacco was strongly sanctioned, but
smoking did not strongly jeopardize a religious identity. Sikh men's
abstention indicated manly strength central to a devout identity.
Some experimentation was possible out of view of the older
generation, especially the aunties, but the risk of gossip damaging
young women's reputations was keenly felt. While damage to
women's reputations was hard to undo, men's reputations tarnished
by substance use, could be compensated for by their parents'
honorable status. Discussion of tradition as innovation was rare and
met with resistance. Tradition was largely experienced as a
constraint to be circumvented (2).
Désalliers & al. (3) stressed that obstetric fistula, caused by
traumatic delivery and patient lack of access to obstetric care, is an
important public health concern in developing countries, particularly
in Sub-Saharan Africa. This research focuses on the experience of
women living with obstetric fistula in Burkina Faso as well as their
reintegration into community after surgery. This project was funded
by the Mères du Monde en Santé (MMS) Foundation and conducted
in collaboration with the Boromo Hospital. A qualitative approach
based on grounded theory and using the principles of participative
action research (PAR) was used with semidirected interviews prior to
surgery and follow-up interviews 1-2 years after surgery directly in
the women's village of origin. Thirty-nine participants were recruited
between 2012 and 2015. The results point to circumstances leading
40
to obstetric fistula development: poverty, gender inequality in terms
of decision making, healthcare-system deficiencies, and lack of
services for referral and treatment of this condition. The results
reinforce the knowledge about the social and psychological
repercussions of fistula by exploring the concepts of gossips, shame,
and self-exclusion as powerful mechanisms of exclusion, but they
also show that social support was conserved for several women
through their journey with this disease. There was complete social
rehabilitation within the community after surgery; however,
persistent barriers in term of anxiety regarding obstetric future and
economic insecurity were present. The data demonstrate that early
recruitment for surgery and prevention are the main objectives when
attempting to reduce the impact of obstetric fistula and facilitate
patient reintegration. Improvements in local and governmental
public health policies are required (3).
Dowd & Davidhizar (4) noticed that rumors and gossip have long
been popular topics in literature. Social scientists have even studied
the topic and defined four main types of rumor: wish rumors; fear or
bogey rumors; wedge-driving or aggressive rumors; and anticipatory
rumors. In general, people believe rumor and gossip are synonymous.
Rumormongering - the spreading of rumors - occurs among all
cultures and types of people. Both men and women gossip, and
women's gossip is not more vindicative than men's, as is often
thought. With such new means of communication as the Internet,
transmitting rumor is possible beyond the traditional oral and written
forms. Rumor is spread in both the higher and lower levels of an
organization. Typically, disproving a rumor is more difficult than
proving a rumor. The financial impact of a rumor must be considered
also. If people believe, for example, that a radiology department does
not have its act together or offers poor customer service, the
department may lose revenue because people have lost confidence
in it. Originally, the word gossip had positive implications. It referred
to a family friend or the woman who delivered a child and announced
the event to the community. Because well-intentioned gossip often
turns into a damaging story, various approaches for stopping rumors
have been identified. They include analyzing the grapevine,
identifying the habitual spreaders of rumor, and keeping employees
informed. In most cases, a person of authority who provides facts can
stop or at least slow down rumors spreading at the employee level
(4).
Sileo & al. (5) examined the occurrence of LGBTQ+ stigma in
healthcare guided by the Health Stigma and Discrimination
Framework. Focus groups with healthcare professionals were
conducted and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Stigma
drivers included knowledge deficits and transphobia. Facilitators
were the binary organization of medical education and training,
cisnormative system procedures, a lack of enforceable policy to
reduce stigma, and workplace culture and norms. Stigma practices,
such as prejudicial attitudes, gossip, and misgendering, primarily
focused on transgender individuals. This study reinforces the need to
reduce LGBTQ+ stigma in healthcare settings, with implications for
multi-level interventions (5).
41
Eliason & al. (6) stated that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,
queer, and other sexual/gender minority (LGBTQ+) health care
providers face both general work-related stresses and working in
heteronormative settings with ill-informed or hostile coworkers and
patients, yet there has been little study of whether the coping
strategies are specific to LGBTQ+ stress. Qualitative data were
analyzed from 277 health care professionals. Sources of stress
included religiously and politically conservative coworkers,
coworker/patient lack of knowledge, stresses of being closeted, and
concerns about being out to patients. Consequences of being out as
LGBTQ+ included lack of promotions, gossip, refusals of tenure, and
anti-LGBTQ+ comments and behaviors in the workplace.
Respondents showed mostly positive coping strategies to deal with
stress, including becoming educators/advocates and self-care
activities. Self-care options were common in rural areas with few
LGBTQ+ social resources. Negative coping strategies were reported
by 18% of respondents. The study highlights the extra burden of
stress on LGBTQ+ health care providers (6).
References
1. Waddington K. Rethinking gossip and scandal in healthcare
organizations. J Health Organ Manag. 2016;30(6):810-7.
2. Bradby H. Watch out for the aunties! Young British Asians' accounts
of identity and substance use. Sociol Health Illn. 2007; 29(5):656-72.
3. Désalliers J, Paré M-E, Kouraogo S, Corcos J. Impact of surgery on
quality of life of women with obstetrical fistula: a qualitative study in
Burkina Faso. Int Urogynecol J. 2017;28(7):1091-1100.
4. Dowd SB, Davidhizar R. Rumors and gossip in radiology. Radiol
Manage. 1997;19(6):46-9.
5. Sileo KM, Baldwin A, Huynh TA, et al. Assessing LGBTQ+ stigma
among healthcare professionals: an application of the health stigma and
discrimination framework in a qualitative, community-based participatory
research study. J Health Psychol. 2022;27(9):2181-96.
6. Eliason MJ, Streed Jr C, Henne M. Coping with stress as an LGBTQ+
health care professional. J Homosex. 2018;65(5):561-78.
CHILDHOOD/ADOLESCENTS
McQuade & al. (1) stated that although evidence suggests that
executive functioning (EF) impairments are implicated in physically
aggressive behavior (e.g., hitting) these cognitive impairments have
rarely been examined with regard to relational aggression (e.g.,
gossip, systematic exclusion). Studies also have not examined if EF
impairments underlie the expression of aggression in children with
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and if child gender
moderates risk. Children with and without clinical elevations in
ADHD symptoms (n=124; ages 8-12 years; 48 % male) completed a
battery of EF tests. Parent and teacher report of ADHD and
oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms and teacher report of
engagement in physical and relational aggression were collected.
Models tested the unique association of EF abilities with physical and
relational aggression and the indirect effect through the expression
of ADHD or ODD behaviors; child gender was also tested as a
moderator. EF impairment was uniquely associated with physical
42
aggression, but better EF ability was associated with relational
aggression. For boys, poor EF also was indirectly associated with
greater physical aggression through the expression of ADHD
behaviors. However, ADHD symptoms were unrelated to relational
aggression. ODD symptoms also predicted physical aggression for
boys but relational aggression for girls. Results suggest that there are
multiple and distinct factors associated with engagement in physical
and relational aggression and that better EF may actually promote
relational aggression. Established models of physical aggression
should not be assumed to map on to explanations of relational
aggression (1).
Miller & Vaillancourt (2) investigated this study investigated the
hypothesized relation between retrospective accounts of perceived
peer-inflicted emotional abuse during childhood and perfectionism in
adulthood, using two independent samples and two different
measures of perfectionism, Emotional victimization ('indirect'
aggression) is characterized by behavior in which mental harm is
inflicted on victims through exclusionary acts, gossiping, and rumor
spreading. Study one: Self-reported questionnaires of indirect
victimization [DIAS; Bjorkqvist, Lagerspetz, and Osterman, 1992] and
perfectionism [multidimensional perfectionism scale; Hewitt and
Flett, 1991] were administered to 162 (mean age=20.14 years)
female undergraduate psychology students. Results support the
predicted positive relationship between recalled indirect peer
victimization and current socially prescribed/self-oriented
perfectionism. Study two: self-reports of indirect peer victimization
and perfectionism (eating disorder inventory-perfectionism) were
collected from 196 (mean age=19.5 years) female undergraduate
students. Again, recalled indirect peer victimization was a
statistically significant predictor of current socially prescribed/self-
oriented perfectionism whereas recalled direct (physical, verbal) peer
victimization held no relation. Discussion addresses the implications
of these results, which hold importance for both the bullying and
perfectionism literatures (2).
Centifanti & al. (3) emphasized that adolescent girls often
perpetrate aggression by gossiping and spreading rumors about
others, by attempting to ruin relationships and by manipulating and
excluding others. Further, males and females engage in reactive and
proactive relational aggression differently. In this study, the
individual, peer and parental contextual factors that best explained
the use of reactive and proactive relational aggression were
examined in girls. Female participants (n=614; ages 11-18 years)
completed questionnaires on aggression, callous-unemotional (CU)
traits, delinquency, peer delinquency, gender composition of their
peer group, resistance to peer influence and perceived parental
overcontrol. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the
effects of individual, peer- and parent-related variables on the
likelihood of being classified as a low aggressor, reactive aggressor, or
proactive/reactive aggressor. Girls in the combined
reactive/proactive aggression group were younger, had greater CU
traits, a lower proportion of male peers and greater perception of
parental control than both the reactive and low aggressive groups.
Both highly aggressive groups were more delinquent and had greater
43
peer delinquency than the low aggressive group. This study suggests
those girls who show relational aggression for the purpose of gaining
status and revenge feel restrained by their parents and may gravitate
toward relationships that support their behavior (3).
Hall & al. (4) emphasized that adolescent pregnancy contributes
to high maternal mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. Atigma was
explored surrounding adolescent sexual and reproductive health
(SRH) and its impact on young Ghanaian women's family planning
(FP) outcomes. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted
with 63 women ages 15-24 recruited from health facilities and
schools in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana. Purposive sampling provided
diversity in reproductive/relationship/socioeconomic/religious
characteristics. Using both deductive and inductive approaches, the
thematic analysis applied principles of grounded theory. Participants
described adolescent SRH experiences as cutting across five stigma
domains. First, community norms identified non-marital sex and its
consequences (pregnancy, childbearing, abortion, sexually
transmitted infections) as immoral, disrespectful, and disobedient,
resulting in bad girl labeling. Second, enacted stigma entailed gossip,
marginalization, and mistreatment from all community members,
especially healthcare workers. Third, young sexually active,
pregnant, and childbearing women experienced internalized stigma
as disgrace, shame and shyness. Fourth, non-disclosure and secret-
keeping were used to avoid/reduce stigma. Fifth, stigma resilience
was achieved through social support. Collectively, SRH stigma
precluded adolescents' use of FP methods and services. The resulting
conceptual model of adolescent SRH stigma can guide health service,
public health, and policy efforts to address unmet FP need and de-
stigmatize SRH for young women worldwide (4).
do Carmo & al. (5) aimed to understand the routine of the
adolescent-being, who is under semi-liberty socio-educational
measures. Phenomenological research was developed in unit of the
Socio-Educational Treatment Foundation (Fundação de Atendimento
Socioeducativo), in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Interviews
were held with nine adolescents, from February to May, 2009. The
Heideggerian analysis un-veiled that this socio-educational measure
means a prison for them, something bad. They know they are not in
the prison system due to their age and re-cognize they have thrown
away their adolescence. In the institution, these youngsters go to
school to learn something, to get some job. They express themselves
through gossip, ambiguity, and occupation. The conclusion is that
the teenager is-thrown in that which is determined and remain in
impersonality. For social reintegration they need the help of the
socio-educational system, mediated by interdisciplinary work, and a
support network for which the family, community and State are co-
responsible (5).
Yonas & al. (6) explored how young boys and girls living in low-
income urban neighborhoods defined and described reasons
associated with youth violence. Five focus groups were conducted
with 29 youth between the ages of 8 and 12 recruited from four
selected study neighborhoods. Participants were asked to describe
youth violence. Appropriate probes were used to explore similarities
and differences by gender with regard to the reasons for violence.
44
Definitions of youth violence were consistent across participants and
included verbal threats, physical contact, and often the use of a
weapon. Several common reasons for violence were found among
both boys and girls; romantic relationships, respect, idle time,
gangs/cliques, and witnessing violence. Reasons for violence unique
to boys included fighting about issues related to money and illicit
drugs. Gossip was identified as a reason specific to why girls engage
in violence. Youth violence was perceived as a common problem
impacting the lives of the boys and girls in this study. Although many
of the reasons identified for violence are similar among boys and
girls, select gender differences do exist. Future research and
prevention efforts to address youth violence should engage young
people in efforts to understand and address this important public
health topic (6).
Fernández & al. (7) determined the prevalence of bullying in its
various forms from the perspective of all of the individuals involved
(victims, bullies, and witnesses) and to explore its distribution as a
function of gender. The study had a correlational design and used a
representative sample of 1,500 Spanish students attending
compulsory secondary education in the academic year 2007-2008. It
applied an instrument measuring different type of bullying, taken
from the studies conducted by Díaz-Aguado, Martínez, and Martín
(2004) and the Defensor del Pueblo (Spanish Ombudsman's Office)-
UNICEF (2007). The findings reveal that all the types of bullying
considered take place at school and that there is an inverse
relationship between the severity and the prevalence of bullying
behaviors, with verbal abuse proving to be the most common type of
abusive behavior. Boys are involved in all kinds of bullying incidents
as bullies significantly more often than girls are, except in cases
involving 'talking about someone behind their back'; in these
situations, girls are involved significantly more often as bullies than
boys are. As for victimization, boys are victims of direct physical
abuse significantly more often than girls are, while girls are more
often the subject of malicious gossip (7).
Ryoo & al. (8) stated that applications of latent transition analysis
(LTA) have emerged since the early 1990s, with numerous scientific
findings being published in many areas, including social and
behavioral sciences, education, and public health. Although LTA is
effective as a statistical analytic tool for a person-centered model
using longitudinal data, model building in LTA has often been
subjective and confusing for applied researchers. To fill this gap in
the literature, the components of LTA are reviewed, a framework of
fitting LTA is recommended, and what acceptable model evaluation
tools should be used in practice are summarized. The proposed
framework of fitting LTA consists of six steps depicted in Figure 1
from step 0 (exploring data) to step 5 (fitting distal variables). The
framework of fitting LTA was also illustrated with data on concerns
about school bullying from a sample of 1,180 students ranging from
5th to 9th grade (mean age = 12.2 years, SD = 1.29 years at Time 1)
over three semesters. Four groups of students were identified with
distinct patterns of bullying concerns, and found that their concerns
about bullying decreased and narrowed to specific concerns about
rumors, gossip, and social exclusion over time. The data and
45
command (syntax) files needed for reproducing the results using SAS
PROC LCA and PROC LTA (Version 1.3.2) (2015) and Mplus 7.4
(Muthén and Muthén, 1998-2015) are provided as online
supplementary materials (8).
References
1. McQuade JD, Breaux RP, Miller R, Mathias L. Executive functioning
and engagement in physical and relational aggression among children with
ADHD. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2017;45(5):899-910.
2. Miller JL, Vaillancourt T. Relation between childhood peer
victimization and adult perfectionism: are victims of indirect aggression
more perfectionistic? Aggress Behav. 2007;33(3):230-41.
3. Centifanti LCM, Fanti KA, Thomson ND, et al. Types of relational
aggression in girls are differentiated by callous-unemotional traits, peers
and parental overcontrol. Behav Sci (Basel). 2015;5(4):518-36.
4. Hall KS, Manu A, Morhe E, et al. Bad girl and unmet family planning
need among Sub-Saharan African adolescents: the role of sexual and
reproductive health stigma. Qual Res Med Healthc. 2018;2(1):55-64.
5. do Carmo DRP, de Mello Padoin SM, de Paula CC, et al. Adolescents
under socio-educational measures: everyday ways of being and
possibilities for nursing. Rev Gaucha Enferm. 2011;32(3):472-8.
6. Yonas MA, O'Campo P, Burke JG, et al. Urban youth violence: do
definitions and reasons for violence vary by gender? J Urban Health.
2005;82(4):543-51.
7. Fernández MVC, Fernández ML, Castro YR, et al. Bullying in Spanish
secondary schools: gender-based differences. Span J Psychol.
2013;16:E21.
8. Ryoo JH, Wang C, Swearer SM, et al. Longitudinal model building
using latent transition analysis: an example using school bullying data.
Front Psychol. 2018 May 8;9:675.
NURSING
Waddington & Fletcher (1) examined the relationship between
gossip and emotion in health-care organizations. It draws on findings
from empirical research exploring the characteristics and function of
gossip which, to date, has been a relatively under-researched
organizational phenomenon. A multidisciplinary approach was
adopted, drawing on an eclectic range of discipline-based theories,
skills, ideas, and data. Methods included repertory grid technique,
in-depth interviews, and structured diary records of work-related
gossip. The sample comprised 96 qualified nurses working in a range
of practice areas and organizational settings in the UK. Template
analysis was used to integrate findings across three phases of data
collection. The findings revealed that gossip is used to express a
range of emotions including care and concern about others, anger,
annoyance, and anxiety, with emotional outcomes that include
feeling reassured and supported. It is the individual who gossips,
while the organization provides the content, emotional context,
triggers, and opportunities. Nurses were chosen as an information-
rich source of data, but the findings may simply reflect the
professional culture and practice of nursing. Future research should
take into account a wider range of health-care organizational roles
and perspectives in order to capture the dynamics and detail of the
emotions and relationships that initiate and sustain gossip. Because
46
gossip makes people feel better it may serve to reinforce the "stress
mask of professionalism", hiding issues of conflict, vulnerability, and
intense emotion. Managers need to consider what the emotions
expressed through gossip might represent in terms of underlying
issues relating to organizational health, communication, and change.
This paper makes a valuable contribution to the under-researched
phenomenon of gossip in organizations and adds to the growing field
of research into the role of emotion in health-care organizations and
emotion work in nursing (1).
Prasad (2) identified the most frequent bullying behavior
encountered by the student nurses, the source that most frequently
bullies them and the most frequent coping behavior employed by
them against the bullying. The descriptive research design involving
a sample size of 200 nursing students was used for the study. The
findings of the study revealed that the most frequent bullying
behavior was spreading of rumors or gossips, the sources that most
frequently bullies them is their own classmates "No Response" is the
most frequent coping behavior employed by the student nurses.
From this study it was very evident that the nursing students are also
the victims of bullying (2).
Laing (3) mentioned that despite its generally negative reputation,
gossip continues to be a significant genre of communication in every
society. The initial purpose of this paper is to scrutinize gossip from
historical, analytical, and feminist perspectives. An extensive review
of the literature suggests gossip serves three primary functions:
information, influence or social control and entertainment. The
second purpose is to explore how the functions of gossip may
contribute to the socialization of nurses to their professional role and
to their work culture (3).
Altuntaş & al. (4) emphasized that gossip is important for
managers to control it and to use it to create positive effects that
help organizations to attain their goals. The study utilized a
descriptive model to determine how nurses use gossip as an informal
communication channel in organizational communication. Nurses
working in four hospitals within a city in the eastern part of Turkey
form the population of the study whereas nurses who agreed to
participate in the study form the sample. Among these hospitals,
two of them serve under the Ministry of Health while two serve
under a university; diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation services in
any field are provided in each of these hospitals. The researchers
developed a questionnaire for data collection after examining the
literature. The approval of the ethical committees and written
official permissions were obtained for the study. Data were acquired
from 264 out of 420 nurses in total. Data were collected between
June and September 2011. The response rate to the data collection
tool was 62.8%. Subsequently, data were analyzed by frequency and
percentage distribution tests with SPSS for Windows 17.0. This study
determined that nurses uses gossip most frequently about working
conditions to share information face-to-face when they feel angry.
The data show that nurses use gossip as an informal communication
style in their institutions (4).
Altuntaş & al. (5) mentioned that gossip is important for
managers to control it and to use it to create positive effects that
47
help organizations to attain their goals. The study utilized a
descriptive model to determine how nurses use gossip as an informal
communication channel in organizational communication. Nurses
working in 4 hospitals within a city in the eastern part of Turkey form
the population of the study whereas nurses who agreed to
participate in the study form the sample. Among these hospitals,
two of them serve under the Ministry of Health while two serve
under a university; diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation services in
any field are provided in each of these hospitals. The researchers
developed a questionnaire for data collection after examining the
literature. The approval of the ethical committees and written
official permissions were obtained for the study. Data were acquired
from 264 out of 420 nurses in total. Data were collected between
June and September 2011. The response rate to the data collection
tool was 62.8%. Subsequently, data were analyzed by frequency and
percentage distribution tests with SPSS for Windows 17.0. This study
determined that nurses use gossip most frequently about working
conditions to share information face-to-face when they feel angry.
The data show that nurses use gossip as an informal communication
style in their institutions (5).
Thomas & Rozell (6) noticed that gossip is a natural part of every
social setting and has a profound influence on organizational
behaviors. As the primary care givers in the hospital setting, nurses
are the front line in generating and controlling gossip. It is essential
that management recognize this dynamic in the nursing workforce so
they can be proactive in developing strategies to effectively control
gossip. This article highlights the positive and negative aspects of
gossip and provides strategies to help nursing professionals
effectively manage this workplace issue. Unmanaged gossip can have
a negative effect on the workplace by damaging relationships and
reputations. Gossip that is managed effectively can have a positive
effect on the workplace by building social bonds within the nursing
unit (6).
Percival (7) noticed that Mike, a charge nurse on a surgical day
unit, told me about Janice, his ward clerk who was always gossiping
and causing trouble between people in his team. It was asked what
he had tried to do about it. He said that when he noticed her
gossiping he had asked her for something to try to distract her.
Although this put an end to the immediate problem, Mike wanted a
long-term solution, especially as a new team member had asked for
advice because she felt uncomfortable hearing 'stories' about her
colleagues from Janice (7).
Kiss & al. (8) explored the associations of organizational social
capital (OSC) with the presence of "gossip and slander," the presence
of "conflicts and quarrels," sick leave prevalence, and prevalence of
poor work ability in frontline working personnel of nursing homes. A
total of 239 subjects (81% participation), working in 11 different
nursing homes, took part in a cross-sectional questionnaire study.
Following end points were considered, they are as follows:
prevalence of "gossip and slander," "conflicts and quarrels," sick
leave, and poor work ability. Associations with OSC were explored at
individual level (binomial log-linear regression analysis) and on group
level (Kendall's tau correlation coefficients). Significant associations
48
were found between OSC and "gossip and slander," sick leave, and
poor work ability, both in the individual- and group-level analyses.
The associations showed a higher significance level in the group-level
analyses, with the strongest association found between mean OSC of
the workplace and the prevalence of poor work ability at the
workplace (τ = -0.722; p=0.002). The data demonstrated significant
associations of OSC with three end points that are relevant within the
framework of well-being at work in nursing homes. The results are
suggestive that OSC should be treated as a characteristic of the entire
workplace, rather than as an individually experienced characteristic.
The strikingly strong association between OSC and prevalence of
poor work ability is suggestive for an important role of OSC within
the context of maintaining work ability (8).
References
1. Waddington K, Fletcher C. Gossip and emotion in nursing and
health-care organizations. J Health Organ Manag. 2005;19(4-5):378-94.
2. Prasad K. Bullying from nursing: students' perspective. Nurs J India.
2014;105(2):86-9.
3. Laing M. Gossip: does it play a role in the socialization of nurses?
Image J Nurs Sch. 1993;25(1):37-43.
4. Altuntaş S, Altun OŞ, Akyil RÇ. The nurses' form of organizational
communication: what is the role of gossip? Nurse. 2014;48(1):109-16.
5. Altuntaş S, Altun OŞ, Akyil RÇ. The nurses form of organizational
communication: what is the role of gossip. Contemp Nurse. 2014;3908-
22.
6. Thomas SA, Rozell EJ. Gossip and nurses: malady or remedy? Health
Care Manag (Frederick). 2007;26(2):111-5.
7. Percival J. Gossip column. Nurs Stand. 2002;17(13):20-1.
8. Kiss P, De Meester M, Kristensen TS, Braeckman L. Relationships of
organizational social capital with the presence of "gossip and slander,"
"quarrels and conflicts," sick leave, and poor work ability in nursing
homes. Int Arch Occup Environ Health. 2014;87(8):929-36.
SOCIAL DIMENSIONS
Coyne & al. (1) stated that the extant literature suggests that
relational aggression appears in early childhood, and gradually
increases throughout adolescence. However, very little research has
examined the growth of relational aggression from adolescence to
emerging adulthood. In addition, research generally examines
socializing factors of relational aggression, such as parenting, peers,
siblings, or media in isolation. Accordingly, the aim of the current
study was to examine these socializing factors conjunctively as
predictors of the growth of relational aggression over time.
Participants consisted of 500 adolescents who completed several
questionnaires over a 7-year period (between ages 14-20 on
average). Results revealed that the vast majority of individuals (88%)
showed low levels of relational aggression that decreased over time.
Conversely, a small proportion of individuals (12%) had high,
increasing levels of relational aggression between adolescence and
emerging adulthood. High levels of maternal psychological control,
sibling hostility, and relational aggression in the media at the initial
time point all predicted being in the high and increasing group (1).
49
De Backer & al. (2) presented two compatible hypotheses to
explain interest in celebrity gossip. The Learning Hypothesis explains
interest in celebrity gossip as a by-product of an evolved mechanism
useful for acquiring fitness-relevant survival information. The
Parasocial Hypothesis sees celebrity gossip as a diversion of this
mechanism, which leads individuals to misperceive celebrities as
people who are part of their social network. Using two preliminary
studies, the predictions were tested. In a survey with 838
respondents and in-depth interviews with 103 individuals, it was
investigated how interest in celebrity gossip was related to several
dimensions of the participants' social lives. In support of the Learning
Hypothesis, age proved to be a strong predictor of interest in
celebrities. In partial support of the Parasocial Hypothesis, media
exposure, but not social isolation, was a strong predictor of interest
in celebrities. The preliminary results support both theories, indicate
that across our life span celebrities move from being teachers to
being friends, and open up a list of future research opportunities (2).
Cruz & al. (3) emphasized that recent experimental studies seem
to concur that gossip is good for groups by showing that gossip stems
from prosocial motives to protect group members from non-
cooperators. Thus, these studies emphasize the “bright” side of
gossip. However, scattered studies point to detrimental outcomes of
gossip for individuals and groups, arguing that a “dark” side of gossip
exists. To understand the implications of gossip for cooperation in
groups, both the dark and bright side of gossip must be illuminated.
Both sides of gossip were investigated in two scenario studies. In
Study 1 (n=108), participants were confronted with a free-rider in
their group and manipulated whether the gossip recipient was the
free-rider’s potential victim or not. Participants showed a higher
group protection motivation in response to gossip when imagining
gossiping to a potential victim of a norm violator compared to a non-
victim. They showed a higher emotion venting motivation when
imagining gossiping to a non-victim compared to a potential victim.
Both these gossip motives were related to an increased tendency to
gossip. In Study 2 (n=104), it was manipulated whether participants
were the targets or observers of gossip and whether the gossip was
true or false. Results showed that targets of negative gossip
intended to increase their work effort in the short run, but only when
the gossip was true. Furthermore, gossip targets reported lower
long-term cooperative intentions toward their workgroup regardless
of gossip veracity. This paper demonstrates that gossip has both a
“dark” and “bright” side and that situational factors and agent
perspectives determine which side prevails (3).
Hartung & Renner (4) examined two fundamental social
behaviors, social curiosity and gossip, and their interrelations in an
English (n=218) and a German sample (n=152). Analyses showed that
both samples believed that they are less gossipy but more curious
than their peers. Multidimensional SEM of self and trait conceptions
indicated that social curiosity and gossip are related constructs but
with different patterns of social functions. Gossip appears to serve
predominantly entertainment purposes whereas social curiosity
appears to be more driven by a general interest in gathering
information about how other people feel, think, and behave and the
50
need to belong. Relationships to other personality traits (N, E, O)
provided additional evidence for divergent validity. The needs for
gathering and disseminating social information might represent two
interlinked but different drives of cultural learning (4).
Peters & al. (5) proposed that the gossip that is triggered when
people witness behaviors that deviate from social norms builds social
bonds. To test this possibility, the Authors showed dyads of
unacquainted students a short video of everyday campus life that
either did or did not include an incident of negative or positive
deviance (dropping or cleaning up litter). Study 1 showed that
participants in the deviance conditions reported having a greater
understanding of campus social norms than those in the control
condition; they also expressed a greater desire to gossip about the
video. Study 2 found that when given the opportunity, participants
did gossip about the deviance, and this gossip was associated with
increased norm clarification and (indirectly) social cohesion. These
findings suggest that gossip may be a mechanism through which
deviance can have positive downstream social consequences (5).
Kniffin & Wilson (6) emphasized that gossip is a subject that has
been studied by researchers from an array of disciplines with various
foci and methods. The content of language use was measured by
members of a competitive sports team across 18 months, integrating
qualitative ethnographic methods with quantitative sampling and
analysis. It was hypothesized that the use of gossip will vary
significantly depending on whether it is used for self-serving or
group-serving purposes. The results support a model of gossip
derived from multilevel selection theory that expects gossip to serve
group-beneficial rules when rewards are partitioned at the group
level on a scale that permits mutual monitoring. The case study was
integrated with earlier studies of gossip conducted by
anthropologists, psychologists, and management researchers (6).
Campbell (7) mentioned that monogamy tends to equalize mate
competition between the sexes. However, women show greater
restraint in their use of direct intrasexual aggression, which, was
argued, is a result of their higher parental investment and the
consequently greater reproductive cost of injury or death. Women
usually compete for mates by advertising qualities valued by men
(beauty and sexual exclusiveness) and by using indirect means of
denigrating rivals (through gossip and stigmatization). However,
where well-resourced men are in short supply, women must find
alternative sources of support or escalate their competition for male
partners to physical levels. Data from criminology, psychology,
evolutionary biology, and anthropology are used to support these
proposals (7).
Samu & al. (8) emphasized that a human solution to the problem
of cooperation is the maintenance of informal reputation hierarchies.
Reputational information contributes to cooperation by providing
guidelines about previous group-beneficial or free-rider behavior in
social dilemma interactions. How reputation information could be
credible, however, remains a puzzle. Two potential safeguards were
tested to ensure credibility: 1] reputation is a scarce resource and 2]
it is not earned for direct benefits. These solutions were tested in a
laboratory experiment in which participants played two-person
51
Prisoner's Dilemma games without partner selection, could observe
some other interactions, and could communicate reputational
information about possible opponents to each other. Reputational
information clearly influenced cooperation decisions. Although
cooperation was not sustained at a high level in any of the
conditions, the possibility of exchanging third-party information was
able to temporarily increase the level of strategic cooperation when
reputation was a scarce resource, and reputational scores were
directly translated into monetary benefits. Competition for monetary
rewards or unrestricted non-monetary reputational rewards helped
the reputation system to be informative. Finally, it was found that
high reputational scores are reinforced further as they are rewarded
with positive messages, and positive gossip was leading to higher
reputations (8).
Cone & al. (9) asked: to what extent are we beholden to the
information we encounter about others? Are there aspects of
cognition that are unduly influenced by gossip or outright
disinformation, even when we deem it unlikely to be true? Research
has shown that implicit impressions of others are often insensitive to
the truth value of the evidence. It was examined whether the
believability of new, contradictory information about others
influenced whether people corrected their implicit and explicit
impressions. Contrary to previous work, it was found that across
seven studies, the perceived believability of new evidence predicted
whether people corrected their implicit impressions. Subjective
assessments of truth value also uniquely predicted correction beyond
other properties of information such as diagnosticity/extremity. This
evidence shows that the degree to which someone thinks new
information is true influences whether it impacts implicit impressions
(9).
Lind & al. (10) studied a simple model of information propagation
in social networks, where two quantities are introduced: the spread
factor, which measures the average maximal reachability of the
neighbors of a given node that interchange information among each
other, and the spreading time needed for the information to reach
such a fraction of nodes. When the information refers to a particular
node at which both quantities are measured, the model can be taken
as a model for gossip propagation. In this context, the model was
applied to real empirical networks of social acquaintances and
compare the underlying spreading dynamics with different types of
scale-free and small-world networks. It was found that the number
of friendship connections strongly influences the probability of being
gossiped. Finally, it was discussed how the spread factor is able to be
applied to other situations (10).
Számadó & al. (11) mentioned that large-scale non-kin
cooperation is a unique ingredient of human success. This type of
cooperation is challenging to explain in a world of self-interested
individuals. There is overwhelming empirical evidence from different
disciplines that reputation and gossip promote cooperation in
humans in different contexts. Despite decades of research,
important details of reputation systems are still unclear. The goal
with this theme issue is to promote an interdisciplinary approach that
allows us to explore and understand the evolution and maintenance
52
of reputation systems with a special emphasis on gossip and honest
signalling. The theme issue is organized around four main questions:
What are the necessary conditions for reputation-based systems?
What is the content and context of reputation systems? How can
reputations promote cooperation? And, what is the role of gossip in
maintaining reputation systems and thus cooperation? This article is
part of the theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and
honest signalling' (11).
Bingley & al. (12) stated thar secrecy, privacy, confidentiality,
concealment, disclosure, and gossip all involve sharing and
withholding access to information. However, existing theories do not
account for the fundamental similarity between these concepts.
Accordingly, it is unclear when sharing and withholding access to
information will have positive or negative effects and why these
effects might occur. It is argued that these problems can be
addressed by conceptualizing these phenomena more broadly as
different kinds of information-access regulation. Furthermore, it is
outlined a social-identity theory of information-access regulation
(SITIAR) that proposes that information-access regulation shapes
shared social identity, explaining why people who have access to
information feel a sense of togetherness with others who have the
same access and a sense of separation from those who do not. This
theoretical framework unifies diverse findings across disparate lines
of research and generates a number of novel predictions about how
information-access regulation affects individuals and groups (12).
Sharabi (13) emphasized that being a medium of a god is common
and normative in the Western Himalayas. In this article I present a
case of three mediums who were regarded with mixed feelings by
society, because their mediumship strongly criticized religious
practices and the caste system. The villagers in the study area have
cultural-religious practices that help them cope with deviant forms of
mediumship - patterns such as ignoring a person or gossiping about
them to express skepticism or to label the possession as inauthentic.
These approaches were not effective in these cases. As a result, the
biomedical concept of madness was invoked by some members of
the community to put an end to what they regarded as deviant
mediumship (13).
Sharma & al. (14) noticed that researchers and researched
populations are actively involved in participatory epidemiology. Such
studies collect many details about an individual. Recent
developments in statistical inferences can lead to sensitive
information leaks from seemingly insensitive data about individuals.
Typical safeguarding mechanisms are vetted by ethics committees;
however, the attack models are constantly evolving. Newly
discovered threats, change in applicable laws or an individual's
perception can raise concerns that affect the study. Addressing these
concerns is imperative to maintain trust with the researched
population. Lohpi is implicated: an infrastructure for building
accountability in data processing for participatory epidemiology. The
challenge of data-ownership is addressed by allowing institutions to
host data on their managed servers while being part of Lohpi. data
were updated access policies using gossips. Lohpi is presented as a
53
novel architecture for research data processing and evaluate the
dissemination, overhead, and fault-tolerance (14).
Molho & al (15) emphasized that across societies, humans punish
norm violations. To date, research on the antecedents and
consequences of punishment has largely relied upon agent-based
modeling and laboratory experiments. Here, a longitudinal study
documenting punishment response to norm violations in daily life (k
= 1507; n=257) is reported and test pre-registered hypotheses are
tested about the antecedents of direct punishment (i.e.,
confrontation) and indirect punishment (i.e., gossip and social
exclusion). It was found that people use confrontation versus gossip
in a context-sensitive manner. Confrontation is more likely when
punishers have been personally victimized, have more power, and
value offenders more. Gossip is more likely when norm violations are
severe and when punishers have less power, value offenders less,
and experience disgust. Findings reveal a complex punishment
psychology that weighs the benefits of adjusting others' behavior
against the risks of retaliation (15).
Hsee & Ruan (16) stated that curiosity-the desire for information-
underlies many human activities, from reading celebrity gossip to
developing nuclear science. Curiosity is well recognized as a human
blessing. Is it also a human curse? Tales about such things as
Pandora's box suggest that it is, but scientific evidence is lacking. In
four controlled experiments, it was demonstrated that curiosity could
lead humans to expose themselves to aversive stimuli (even electric
shocks) for no apparent benefits. The research suggests that humans
possess an inherent desire, independent of consequentialist
considerations, to resolve uncertainty; when facing something
uncertain and feeling curious, they will act to resolve the uncertainty
even if they expect negative consequences. This research reveals the
potential perverse side of curiosity, and is particularly relevant to the
current epoch, the epoch of information, and to the scientific
community, a community with high curiosity (16).
Raskauskas & Stoltz (17) emphasized that chronic victimization by
bullies has been associated with academic failure in adolescence, as
well as adjustment difficulties, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Relational aggression is a form of bullying that is a problem for
adolescent girls. It often takes the form of damaging peer
relationships and includes verbal assaults such as teasing or name
calling, as well as psychological attacks such as gossip, social
exclusion, and strategic friendship manipulations. A girl's ability to
identify these indirect attacks may be imperative for her to enact an
effective defense. Because many students do not recognize
relational aggression as a form of bullying, their experiences often go
unreported to parents or teachers. School nurses may be the front
line of defense. With this in mind, school nurses must be informed
about bullying behaviors, equipped to identify these behaviors, and
prepared to intervene with victims as well as perpetrators of bullying
(17).
Giardini (18) noticed that research in various disciplines has
highlighted that humans are uniquely able to solve the problem of
cooperation through the informal mechanisms of reputation and
gossip. Reputation coordinates the evaluative judgments of
54
individuals about one another. Direct observation of actions and
communication are the essential routes that are used to establish
and update reputations. In large groups, where opportunities for
direct observation are limited, gossip becomes an important channel
to share individual perceptions and evaluations of others that can be
used to condition cooperative action. Although reputation and
gossip might consequently support large-scale human cooperation,
four puzzles need to be resolved to understand the operation of
reputation-based mechanisms. First, we need empirical evidence of
the processes and content that form reputations and how this may
vary cross-culturally. Second, we lack an understanding of how
reputation is determined from the muddle of imperfect, biased
inputs people receive. Third, coordination between individuals is
only possible if reputation sharing and signaling is to a large extent
reliable and valid. Communication, however, is not necessarily
honest and reliable, so theoretical and empirical work is needed to
understand how gossip and reputation can effectively promote
cooperation despite the circulation of dishonest gossip. Fourth,
reputation is not constructed in a social vacuum; hence we need a
better understanding of the way in which the structure of
interactions affects the efficiency of gossip for establishing
reputations and fostering cooperation (18).
Opsahl & (19) stated that incivility results in nurse burnout,
decreased job performance, and decreased patient safety. Leaders
of an academic-practice partnership developed educational activities
promoting organizational civility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The
purpose of this article is to describe an educational activity about
civility that was transitioned to a virtual platform and participants'
comfort engaging in and responding to incivility. Face-to-face
education was converted to a synchronous online event, supporting
75 nurses, nursing students, and other health care professionals in
attendance. Activities consisted of cognitive rehearsal techniques,
breakout rooms, simulation videos, group debriefs, and panel
discussions delivered via Zoom and Mentimeter software. Workplace
Civility Index results were significantly different from pretest to post-
test. Seventy-two percent of participants were not comfortable
gossiping about others, but only 30% were comfortable responding
to incivility. The data show that promoting civility awareness through
a virtual education platform using cognitive rehearsal techniques and
reflection can provide support for current and future nurses (19).
Yao & al. (20) emphasized that although gossip serves several
important social functions, it has relatively infrequently been the
topic of systematic investigation. In two experiments, a cognitive-
informational approach was advanced to gossip. Specifically, which
informational components engender gossip was sought to
determine. In Experiment 1, participants read brief passages about
other people and indicated their likelihood to share this information.
Target familiarity (celebrity, non-celebrity) and story interest
(interesting, boring) were manipulated. While participants were
more likely to gossip about celebrity than non-celebrity targets and
interesting than boring stories, they were even more likely to gossip
about celebrity targets embedded within interesting stories. In
Experiment 2, participants' reactions were additionally probed to the
55
stories concerning emotion, expectation, and reputation information
conveyed. Analyses showed that while such information partially
mediated target familiarity and story interest effects, only
expectation and reputation accounted for the interactive pattern of
gossip behavior. The findings provide novel insights into the essential
components and processing mechanisms of gossip (20).
Bozoyan & Vogt (21) emphasized that economic exchange
between strangers happens extremely frequently due to the growing
number of internet transactions. In trust situations like online
transactions, a trustor usually does not know whether she
encounters a trustworthy trustee. However, the trustor might form
beliefs about the trustee's trustworthiness by relying on third-party
information. Different kinds of third-party information can vary
dramatically in their importance to the trustor. A factorial design was
run to study how the different characteristics of third-party
information affect the trustor's decision to trust. Unregulated third-
party information was systematically varied regarding the source
(friend or a stranger), the reliability (gossip or experiences), and the
valence (positive or negative) of the information. The results show
that negative information is more salient for withholding trust than
positive information is for placing trust. If third-party information is
positive, experience of a friend has the strongest effect on trusting
followed by friend's gossip. Positive information from a stranger
does not matter to the trustor. With respect to negative information,
the data show that even the slightest hint of an untrustworthy
trustee leads to significantly less placed trust irrespective of the
source or the reliability of the information (21).
Wiessner (22) mentioned that much attention has been focused
on control of fire in human evolution and the impact of cooking on
anatomy, social, and residential arrangements. However, little is
known about what transpired when firelight extended the day,
creating effective time for social activities that did not conflict with
productive time for subsistence activities. Comparison of 174 day
and nighttime conversations among the Ju/'hoan (!Kung) Bushmen of
southern Africa, supplemented by 68 translated texts, suggests that
day talk centers on economic matters and gossip to regulate social
relations. Night activities steer away from tensions of the day to
singing, dancing, religious ceremonies, and enthralling stories, often
about known people. Such stories describe the workings of entire
institutions in a small-scale society with little formal teaching. Night
talk plays an important role in evoking higher orders of theory of
mind via the imagination, conveying attributes of people in broad
networks (virtual communities), and transmitting the "big picture" of
cultural institutions that generate regularity of behavior,
cooperation, and trust at the regional level. Findings from the
Ju/'hoan are compared with other hunter-gatherer societies and
related to the widespread human use of firelight for intimate
conversation and our appetite for evening stories. The question is
raised as to what happens when economically unproductive firelit
time is turned to productive time by artificial lighting (22).
Eldakar & al. (23) stated that altruism presents an evolutionary
paradox, as altruistic individuals are good for the group yet
vulnerable to exploitation by selfish individuals. One mechanism that
56
can effectively curtail selfishness within groups is punishment. Here,
it was shown in an evolutionary game-theoretical model that
punishment can effectively evolve and maintain high levels of
altruism in the population, yet not all punishment strategies were
equally virtuous. Unlike typical models of social evolution, it was
explicitly altered the extent to which individuals vary in their power
over others, such that powerful individuals can more readily punish
and escape the punishment of others. Two primary findings
emerged. Under large power asymmetries, a powerful selfish
minority-maintained altruism of the masses. In contrast, increased
symmetry of power among individuals produced a more egalitarian
society held together by altruism and punishment carried out by the
collective. These extremes are consistent with the coercive nature of
the powerful elites in social insects and egalitarian mechanisms of
punishment in humans such as coalitional enforcement and gossip.
The overall findings provide insights into the importance of oversight,
the consequences to changes in the power structure of social
systems, and the roots of hypocrisy and corruption in human and
nonhuman animal societies (23).
Watve & al. (24) noticed that the human mating system is
characterized by bi-parental care and faithful monogamy is highly
valued in most cultures. Marriage has evolved as a social institution
and punishment for extra pair mating (EPM) or adultery is common.
However, similar to other species with bi-parental care, both males
and females frequently indulge in EPM in secrecy since it confers
certain gender specific genetic benefits. Stability of faithful
monogamy is therefore a conundrum. Human mating system was
modeled using game theory framework to study the effects of factors
that can stabilize or destabilize faithful committed monogamy.
Although mate guarding can partly protect the genetic interests, it
does not ensure monogamy. Social policing enabled by gossiping is
another line of defense against adultery unique to humans.
However, social policing has a small but positive cost to an individual
and therefore is prone to free riding. The Authors suggested that
since exposure of adultery can invite severe punishment, the policing
individuals can blackmail opportunistically whenever the
circumstances permit. If the maximum probabilistic benefit of
blackmailing is greater than the cost of policing, policing becomes a
non-altruistic act and stabilizes in the society. It was shown that this
dynamic leads to the coexistence of different strategies in
oscillations, with obligate monogamy maintained at a high level.
Deletion of blackmailing benefit from the model leads to the
complete disappearance of obligate monogamy. The data show that
Obligate monogamy can be maintained in the population in spite of
the advantages of EPM. Blackmailing, which makes policing a non-
altruistic act, is crucial for the maintenance of faithful monogamy.
Although biparental care, EPM, mate guarding, and punishment are
shared by many species, gossiping and blackmailing make the human
mating system unique (24).
Baird & al. (25) described relational aggression as a type of
aggression that aims to hurt others through relationships and
includes behaviors such as gossip and ostracism. This type of
aggression is very common among adolescent girls, and in its more
57
intense forms has been linked with poor psychosocial outcomes,
including depression and suicide. In the present study it was
investigated whether individual differences in sensitivity to relational
aggression among adolescent girls predicted recruitment of neural
networks associated with executive function and cognitive control.
Neural response was measured using functional magnetic resonance
imaging during an affect recognition task that included unfamiliar
peer faces. A finding of relatively fewer reports of being victimized
by relational aggression was associated with increased recruitment of
bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices as well as anterior and
posterior cingulate cortices in response to the affect recognition task,
as well as with greater competence on behavioral measures of
executive function. The results suggest that girls who are able to
recruit specific frontal networks to improve cognitive and executive
control are less sensitive to relational aggression (25).
Babaoglu & Jelasity (26) emphasized that as computer systems
have become more complex, numerous competing approaches have
been proposed for these systems to self-configure, self-manage, self-
repair, etc. such that human intervention in their operation can be
minimized. In ubiquitous systems, this has always been a central
issue as well. In this paper, techniques were overviewed to
implement self-* properties in large-scale, decentralized networks
through bio-inspired techniques in general, and gossip-based
algorithms in particular. The Authors believe that gossip-based
algorithms could be an important inspiration for solving problems in
ubiquitous computing as well. As an example, a novel approach was
outlined to arrange large numbers of mobile agents (e.g., vehicles,
rescue teams carrying mobile devices) into different formations in a
totally decentralized manner. The approach is inspired by the
biological mechanism of cell sorting via differential adhesion, as well
as by the earlier work in self-organizing peer-to-peer overlay
networks (26).
Starnini & al. (27) mentioned that face-to-face interaction
networks describe social interactions in human gatherings and are
the substrate for processes such as epidemic spreading and gossip
propagation. The bursty nature of human behavior characterizes
many aspects of empirical data, such as the distribution of
conversation lengths, of conversations per person, or of
interconversion times. Despite several recent attempts, a general
theoretical understanding of the global picture emerging from data is
still lacking. Here a simple model is presented that reproduces
quantitatively most of the relevant features of empirical face-to-face
interaction networks. The model describes agents that perform a
random walk in a two-dimensional space and are characterized by an
attractiveness whose effect is to slow down the motion of people
around them. The proposed framework sheds light on the dynamics
of human interactions and can improve the modeling of dynamical
processes taking place on the ensuing dynamical social networks
(27).
Milinski (28) emphasized that decision rules of reciprocity include
'I help those who helped me' (direct reciprocity) and 'I help those
who have helped others' (indirect reciprocity), i.e. I help those who
have a reputation to care for others. A person's reputation is a score
58
that members of a social group update whenever they see the person
interacting or hear at best multiple gossip about the person's social
interactions. Reputation is the current standing the person has
gained from previous investments or refusal of investments in
helping others. Is he a good guy, can I trust him or should I better
avoid him as a social partner? A good reputation pays off by
attracting help from others, even from strangers or members from
another group, if the recipient's reputation is known. Any costly
investment in others, i.e., direct help, donations to charity,
investment in averting climate change, etc. increases a person's
reputation. It was argued and illustrate with examples that a person's
known reputation functions like money that can be used whenever
the person needs help. Whenever possible the Authors will present
tests of predictions of evolutionary theory, i.e., fitness maximizing
strategies, mostly by economic experiments with humans (28).
Mayer & al. (29) noticed that suicide loss is often concealed.
While initial evidence suggests that disclosure is important for
healthy grieving, observed beneficial effects may depend on social
reactions. The current study aimed to identify social reactions and
associated consequences experienced by persons who lost a loved
one to suicide (i.e., suicide loss survivors). Qualitative interviews
were conducted with 22 female adult suicide loss survivors focusing
on social reactions after suicide loss. Interviews were transcribed and
analyzed using qualitative content analysis. When talking about their
loss with others, suicide loss survivors experienced a broad range of
social reactions including compassionate and supportive responses,
speechlessness and insecurity, curiosity and gossip, stigmatization,
and grieving expectations. Depending on these social reactions,
disclosing suicide loss was associated with both negative and positive
long-term effects. The findings are limited to the current female
sample. The data show that interventions that help suicide loss
survivors in finding supportive confidants, combined with public
interventions to decrease public suicide stigma and improve the
public's readiness to provide helpful support to suicide loss survivors,
could improve grieving outcomes among this group (29).
Rusu (30) mentioned that cross-culturally, dead are protected
from posthumous negative evaluations by the universal "nil nisi
bonum" precept that governs the ethics within the community of
mourners. In this study, it was set out to test the observance of this
injunction against posthumous gossiping in the Romanian public
deathscape. Obituaries and other posthumous articles (n=1,148)
were collected that covered the deaths of 63 celebrities who passed
away between 2013 and 2016. Materials were gathered from the
digital archives of three Romanian news sources (a news agency, a
"quality" newspaper, and a tabloid), published one week after the
moment of death. The findings show that 22% of the articles do
contain negative evaluations of the deceased. The percentage rises
to 36.4% if the sample was restricted to only those celebrities with a
controversial anthumous reputation (19 of 63). These results indicate
that celebrities are not spared from critical assessments after they
pass away (30).
Ingram (31) emphasized that adult humans are characterized by
low rates of intra-group physical aggression. Since children tend to
59
be more physically aggressive, an evolutionary developmental
account shows promise for explaining how physical aggression is
suppressed in adults. The Authors argued that this is achieved partly
through extended dominance hierarchies, based on indirect
reciprocity and linguistic transmission of reputational information,
mediated by indirectly aggressive competition. Reviewing the
literature on indirect and related forms of aggression provides three
pieces of evidence for the claim that evolutionarily old impulses
towards physical aggression are socialized into indirect aggression in
humans: 1] physical aggression falls in early childhood over the same
age range at which indirect aggression increases; 2] the same
individuals engage in both direct and indirect aggression; and 3]
socially dominant individuals practice indirect aggression more
frequently. Consideration of the developmental course of indirect
aggression is complemented by analysis of similar developments in
verbal behaviors that are not always thought of as aggressive, namely
tattling and gossip. An important puzzle concerns why indirect
aggression becomes more covert, and tattling more derogated, in
preadolescence and adolescence. This may be due to the
development of new strategies aimed at renegotiating social identity
and friendship alliances in the peer group (31).
Reysen & al. (32) examined in the three experiments the effects
of passage type on both individual and collaborative memory
performance. In Experiment 1, both individuals and collaborative
groups recalled more information from passages containing social
information than non-social information. Furthermore, collaborative
inhibition (CI) was observed for both types of passages. In
Experiment 2, which included a social passage that did not contain
gossip, significant main effects of both gossip (gossip > non-gossip)
and sociability (explicit > implicit) were observed. As in Experiment 1,
CI was observed across all conditions. Experiment 3 separately
manipulated gossip and the interest level of the passages and both of
these factors enhanced memory performance. Moreover, robust CI
was again observed across all conditions. Taken together, the
present results demonstrate a mnemonic benefit for social
information in individuals and collaborative groups (32).
Archer & Coyne (33) emphasized that over the last decade,
researchers have found that girls may be just as aggressive as boys
when manipulative forms of aggression, such as gossiping and
spreading rumors, are included. These forms of aggression are
known by 3 different names: indirect aggression, relational
aggression, and social aggression. This review examines their
commonalities and differences and concludes that they are
essentially the same form of aggression. Analogous forms are not
found in other species. A functional account: indirect aggression is
offered as s an alternative strategy to direct aggression, enacted
when the costs of direct aggression are high, and whose aim is to
socially exclude, or harm the social status of, a victim. In this light, it
is considered sex differences and developmental trends and the
impact of this aggression on victims. The data show that indirect,
relational, and social aggression are much more similar than they are
different, and we suggest ways in which future research can be
60
facilitated by integrating the three areas under an adaptive
framework (33).
Gans (34) mentioned that although what transpires in group
therapy is not gossip per se-except perhaps when absent or former
members are discussed-listening to group interaction through an
understanding of the dynamics of gossip can contribute to a greater
appreciation of group dynamics and group leadership as well as
enlarge therapeutic space. After examining the interpersonal
dynamics of gossip, this paper discusses six ways in which an
understanding of these dynamics can inform group leadership and
shed light on group psychotherapy. Central features of gossip that
appear in group interactions are explored: these include projection,
displacement, self-esteem regulation, clarification of motivation,
unself-consciousness, social comparison and bonding, avoidance of
psychic pain, and making the ego-syntonic dystonic. The lively use of
imagination in the mature phase of group therapy is conceived of as
the time when the darker side of human nature-imagined gossip
harnessed for therapeutic purposes-can be welcomed in and
processed in a kind, playful, and compassionate manner (34).
Nieper & al. (35) emphasized that understanding when people
behave prosocially is integral to solving many challenges in groups
and society. Gossip-the exchange of information about absent
others-has been proposed to increase prosocial behavior, but
findings are mixed. In this review, the relationship was illuminated
between gossip and prosocial behavior, reconcile disparate findings,
and suggest new directions for research. The review reveals that
gossip increases prosocial behavior to the degree that 1] it is accurate
rather than inaccurate, 2] targets are interdependent with, rather
than independent from, gossip receivers, and c) targets anticipate
that they might be gossiped about, rather than actually experience
negative gossip. Implications of the reviewed findings are discussed
for understanding when gossip serves to uphold desirable behavior
and when it inadvertently engenders undesirable behavior (35).
Mesoudi & al. (36) mentioned that evolutionary theories
concerning the origins of human intelligence suggest that cultural
transmission might be biased toward social over non-social
information. This was tested by passing social and non-social
information along multiple chains of participants. Experiment 1
found that gossip, defined as information about intense third-party
social relationships, was transmitted with significantly greater
accuracy and in significantly greater quantity than equivalent non-
social information concerning individual behavior or the physical
environment. Experiment 2 replicated this finding controlling for
narrative coherence, and additionally found that information
concerning everyday non-gossip social interactions was transmitted
just as well as the intense gossip interactions. It was therefore
concluded that human cultural transmission is biased toward
information concerning social interactions over equivalent non-social
information (36).
Rosen & al. (37) emphasized that social victimization refers to
being targeted by behaviors intended to harm one's social status or
relationships (Underwood, 2003), including malicious gossip,
friendship manipulation, and social exclusion (both verbal and non-
61
verbal). The current study examined social victimization experiences
longitudinally from middle childhood through late adolescence.
Participants (n=273, 139 females) reported on their social
victimization experiences in grades 4-11 (ages 9 to 16 years). Using
mixture (group-based) modeling, four social victimization trajectories
were identified: low, medium decreasing, medium increasing, and
elevated. High parent-child relationship quality decreased the odds
of being in the elevated group compared to the low group; however,
parent-child relationship quality was no longer a significant predictor
when emotional dysfunction was added to the model. Higher
emotional dysfunction and male gender increased the odds of being
in the elevated group and medium increaser group relative to the low
group even after controlling for parent-child relationship quality.
Implications for intervention and future research directions are
discussed (37).
Kuang & al. (38) stated that social sanctions can be effective for
sustaining beneficial norms by harnessing the power of social
pressure and peer monitoring. Yet, field evidence regarding how
norms might be linked to perceived risk of sanction is limited. In this
study, it was focused on communities located in peri-urban areas of
Tamil Nadu, India, and examined how people's perceived prevalence
of a socially desirable behavior (i.e., toilet use) relates to the
perceived risk of sanctions for deviating from this behavior (i.e., open
defecation) in the sanitation domain. Cross-sectional data from
2,427 participants in 75 communities revealed that the majority
(77%, n=1861) perceived the risk of informal sanctions related to
open defecation. Among those, verbal reprimand was the most
common (60%), followed by advice (30%) and gossip (7%). Results
from multilevel logistic regression indicated that those who believed
toilet use was prevalent in their community were more likely to
perceive the risk of social sanctions for open defecation. Moderation
analysis revealed that this relationship was robust among women but
attenuated among men. The findings suggest that women are more
likely to expect social sanctions if they deviate from what is perceived
as the prevalent sanitation behavior (e.g., toilet use) in their
community. Open defecation practices are known to cause
psychosocial stress among women due to their experiences with
sanitation insecurity, which may include fear of disapproval from
community members. The results highlight the need for gendered
intervention strategies when sanitation programs leverage social
influence for behavior change (38).
Tinago & al. (39) reported that adolescent mothers in Zimbabwe
often experience stigma, isolation, and lack coping skills and
resources to successfully navigate motherhood. Social isolation and
stigma are linked to poor mental health outcomes. No interventions
currently address mental health of adolescent mothers in Zimbabwe.
Peer support groups in other contexts have been effective at
increasing social connectedness, self-esteem, and self-efficacy,
providing coping mechanisms to manage stigma experiences, in
addition to empowering and improving mental health of adolescents
and adolescent mothers. To develop a community-based peer
support intervention, the aim was to understand the unique needs of
adolescent mothers, how peer support groups could address those
62
needs, and the feasibility of implementing the intervention. Focus
group discussions were conducted with 86 adolescent mothers aged
14-18 years, 24 community health workers, and 25 key community
stakeholders in a low-income high-density community in Harare.
Data were analyzed thematically using NVivo 12 software.
Participants described adolescent mother experiences with stigma
and social isolation, in addition to challenges including gossip, lack of
employment and educational opportunities, and gaps in services and
programming. Peer support groups for adolescent mothers were
welcomed to improve mental health, social support, knowledge
sharing, and skills building. Participants identified varying preferred
frequency and duration of group sessions addressing topics including
income generation, mental health, and gossip, facilitated by
community health workers at health and community centers. The
use of WhatsApp Messenger to support intervention efforts was
welcomed as an affordable and user-friendly platform to share
information. Implementation (i.e., training, supervision, frequency,
location, and co-facilitation) was feasible. The data show that
adolescent mothers, community health workers and key community
stakeholders welcomed the peer support groups as a feasible way to
address the mothers' needs (39).
Arnault & Roles (40) mentioned that Asian immigrant women
have the lowest utilization of mental health services of any ethnic
minority (Garland, Lau, Yeh & McCabe 2005). Because help seeking
for distress occurs within social networks, it was examined how social
networks supported or disabled help seeking for Japanese sojourners
living in the US. Unfortunately, most of the literature about Japanese
social relationships focuses on men in organizational settings. This
study used intensive ethnographic interviewing with 49 Japanese
expatriate women to examine how social relationships influenced
psychosocial distress and help seeking. It was found that the women
in these samples engaged in complex, highly regulated, complicated,
and obligatory relationships through their primary affiliation with
other "company wives." Like many immigrant women, increased
traditional cultural norms (referred to in Japanese as ryoosai kenbo,
or good wives and wise mothers), were expected from these modern
women, and the enactment of these roles was enforced through
scrutiny, gossip, and the possibility of ostracism. Fears of scrutiny
was described by the women as a primary barrier to their self-
disclosure and ultimate help seeking. Understanding the social
organization and support within the Japanese women's community is
central to understanding how culturally specific social networks both
can give support, as well as create social constraints to help seeking.
Health oriented prevention programs must consider these social
factors when evaluating the immigration stressors faced by these
families (40).
Thomas (41) mentioned that this article is a micro-historical study
of the social networks of an elite mid-wife in seventeenth century
England, and discusses the implications of these networks for our
understanding of early modem midwifery. Bridget Hodgson was the
daughter-in-law to the former Lord Mayor of York, and closely
connected to some of the city's most influential families. Analysis of
the connections found in her will and the depositions from a
63
defamation trial in which she was involved illustrates Hodgson's place
among York's elite, but also indicates that her work as a midwife took
her outside of these circles. This article also compares Hodgson's
experience with that of her maidservant and deputy, discussing the
different meanings that midwifery could have for its practitioners,
depending on their social background. Testimony from the
defamation case indicates the ways in which her work as a midwife
shaped her relationship to parish authorities and to the female
community. Midwives were expected to report illegitimate births to
parish officials, an obligation which overlapped with female efforts to
control the sexuality of neighborhood women through gossip. This
article highlights the complexity of the midwife's place in early
modern society and contributes to our understanding of this
important class of women (41).
Hansen & al. (42) investigated the prevalence of self-reported
experiences of ethnic discrimination and bullying among Sami and
non-Sami adults. This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based
survey. SAMINOR is a population-based study of health and living
conditions that was administered in 2003-2004 in 24 different
Norwegian and Sami populated municipalities within central and
northern Norway. This analysis was based on 12,265 men and
women aged 36-79 years. Ethnic distribution was Sami (33.1%),
Kvens (7.8%) and the ethnic Norwegian majority (59.1%). Overall,
Sami and Kven respondents reported more ethnic discrimination and
bullying in general than ethnic Norwegians (p<0.001). The reporting
was highest among the younger participants (p<0.001). Men
reported more ethnic discrimination than women, while women
reported more bullying. Respondents with the strongest Sami
affiliation reported higher levels of ethnic discrimination outside the
Sami Language Act's district, while respondents with weak Sami
affiliation, Kvens and ethnic Norwegians, reported higher levels
inside this district. Among the respondents that reported bullying
previously, the most common type was discriminating remarks and
the most common location was public schools. For those who
reported bullying in the past year, the most common types were
gossiping and discriminating remarks, and the most common
locations were at work and in the local community. Two out of three
of those reporting ethnic discrimination, independent of ethnicity,
also reported bullying. The findings from this study show that the
Sami and Kven population more often experience bullying and ethnic
discrimination than ethnic Norwegians. These results are consistent
with experiences from other minority and marginalized groups that
experienced colonization. More research is needed to understand
the role bullying and ethnic discrimination play in the wellbeing and
health of the Sami and Kven population (42).
Hendrickson & al. (43) noticed that limited attention has been
given to the effects of labor migration on the reproductive lives of
women 'left behind' as their partners travel for work. Drawing on
two rounds of qualitative interviews with 20 women in the central hill
region of Nepal, this paper examines how global economic processes
that lead Nepali men to travel for work also affect women's
reproductive work, including childrearing and reproductive decision-
making. Women understood their husband's migration to engage in
64
the wage economy as a response to both immediate and long-term
goals for their children and family. As a result, such productive work
was intrinsically linked to reproductive work. Men's migration
patterns played a pivotal role in reinforcing women's immediate
childrearing roles and affecting whether and when women used a
contraceptive method and what methods they considered. During
periods of spousal migration, women's reproductive lives became
targets of gossip and rumors as their intimate and reproductive
practices and use of remittances were socially monitored. This
complex understanding of women's lived experiences at the nexus of
(re)productive work and labor migration can be practically applied to
address the reproductive health needs of women with migrant
spouses in Nepal (43).
Lanham & al. (44) emphasized that Transgender (trans) women
experience gender-based violence (GBV) throughout their lives,
which impedes their access to services and contributes to poor
health outcomes and quality of life. To inform policies and health
programs, trans women worked with the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID)- and President's Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)-supported LINKAGES project, the United
Nations Development Program, The University of the West Indies,
and local organizations to document experiences of GBV and
transphobia in healthcare, education, and police encounters. Trans
women conducted 74 structured interviews with other trans women
in El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Haiti in 2016.
Qualitative applied thematic analysis was conducted to understand
the nature and consequences of GBV and transphobia and
descriptive quantitative analysis to identify the proportion who
experienced GBV in each context. A high proportion experienced
GBV in education (85.1%), healthcare (82.9%), from police (80.0%),
and other state institutions (66.1%). Emotional abuse was the most
common in all contexts and included gossiping, insults, and refusal to
use their chosen name. Participants also experienced economic,
physical, and sexual violence, and other human rights violations
based on their gender identity and expression. At school,
participants were physically threatened and assaulted, harassed in
bathrooms, and denied education. In healthcare, participants were
given lower priority and received substandard care. Healthcare
workers and police blamed participants for their health and legal
problems and denied them services. From police, participants also
experienced physical and sexual assault, theft, extortion for sex or
money, and arbitrary arrest and detention. Participants had difficulty
obtaining identification documents that matched their gender
identity, sometimes being forced to alter their appearance, or being
denied an identification card. Service providers not only failed to
meet the specific needs of trans women but also discriminated
against them when they sought services, exacerbating their
economic, health, and social vulnerability. Although international
and regional resolutions call for the legal protection of transgender
people, states do not meet these obligations. To respect, promote,
and fulfill trans women's human rights, governments should enact
and enforce antidiscrimination and gender-affirming laws and
65
policies. Governments should also sensitize providers to deliver
gender-affirming services (44).
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HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC
Stadler (1) noticed that the HIV/AIDS epidemic provides fertile
breeding ground for theories of the origin of HIV/AIDS, its mode of
transmission, and the allocation of blame. Drawing on ethnographic
research in the Bushbuckridge region of the South African lowveld,
this article examines the articulation of AIDS through gossip and
rumor. These oral forms create moral readings of behavior and
shape folk discourses of AIDS that resist dominant epidemiological
explanations. Significantly, constructions of AIDS are not uniform.
Although elders claim AIDS as traditional and curable, younger men
and women support theories of AIDS as a modern, foreign disease.
Witchcraft beliefs are popular in explaining why certain people die
and not others. At times, rumor may escalate into a moral panic.
The implications of these findings for social responses to the AIDS
epidemic and HIV/AIDS prevention are explored (1).
Knettel & al. (2) noticed that HIV-infected pregnant women face
complex decisions about whether and how to disclose their
serostatus. Previous studies have shown that HIV disclosure is
associated with better care engagement, emotional adjustment to
the disease, and reduced risk of HIV transmission, but women face
both real and perceived barriers to disclosure. Patterns and
predictors of HIV disclosure were examined in a cohort of 200
women diagnosed or confirmed to have HIV during antenatal care in
the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania and followed participants to three
months postpartum. Twenty women also completed qualitative in-
depth interviews during pregnancy and three months postpartum.
During the pregnancy period (at least 30 days post-diagnosis), 79.5%
of women had disclosed to at least one other person, with
disclosures generally restricted to the father of the child and/or a
small number of close family members. By three months
postpartum, 11.9% of women had still not disclosed to anyone.
Women who presented to antenatal care with an established HIV
diagnoses and married women were more likely to report
disclosures. Social support was positively associated with disclosure.
In qualitative interviews, women pointed to community gossip and
stigma as barriers to disclosure. Those who had not disclosed to the
father of the child noted fears of abandonment during the vulnerable
pregnancy period. Despite expressed fears, participants reported
overall positive experiences of disclosure that led to increased
support. Taken together, these results point to the need for
comprehensive, flexible, and culturally informed interventions that
68
assist pregnant and postpartum women in deciding when and how to
disclose. Such interventions should acknowledge and explore
common barriers to disclosure, including fears of public stigma and
personal consequences. Given the strong associations between
disclosure, social support, and community stigma, interventions for
disclosure should be nested in broader efforts of public education
and HIV stigma reduction (2).
Jacobi & al. (3) reported that the universal access to treatment
and care for people living with HIV (PLWHIV) is still a major problem,
especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where 70% of HIV-infected people
live. Equally important is the fact that HIV/AIDS-related stigma is
recognized to be a major obstacle to successfully control the spread
of this disease. The Authors devised a pilot project (titled "My friend
with HIV remains a friend") to fight the HIV/AIDS stigmatization
through educating secondary school students by openly HIV-positive
teachers. In a first step, the amount and type of stigma felt by the
PLWHIV were measured in Buea/Cameroon using the "The people
living with HIV Stigma Index" from Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS. Gossiping and verbal insults were experienced by 90% of
the interviewees, while 9% have experienced physical assaults. Using
these data and material from the "Toolkit for action" from the
"International Centre for the Research on Women," the teachers
educated the students on multiple aspects of HIV/AIDS and stigma.
The teaching curriculum included role-plays, picture visualizations,
drawing, and other forms of interactions like visits to HIV and AIDS
treatment units. Before and after this intervention, the students
undertook "True/False" examinations on HIV/AIDS and stigma. These
results were compared with results from students from another
school, who did not participate in this intervention. The students
taking part in the intervention improved by almost 20% points in
comparison to the other students. Their results did not change (3).
Maksud (4) mentioned that one of the current issues raised by
HIV/AIDS is the phenomenon of serodiscordance: affective-sexual
relations between partners with different HIV serology. The article
analyzes issues that cannot be discussed within established
relationships in these couples and/or with family, friends, and
neighborhood networks. The article discusses two dimensions of
silences and secrets in serodiscordant relationships: 1] individual
secrets and silences that are established for each member of the
couple and 2] double secrets, established by the couple in relation to
others. The article is based on in-depth interviews with 26
serodiscordant couples. The analysis was based on comparative
systematization, which allowed observing how the same thematic
contents varied according to the interviewee's gender and HIV status.
The data show how the subjects develop daily strategies to maintain
aspects of private life that can be threatened by the dynamics of
gossip, understood not as an independent phenomenon, but as a
function of collective norms and beliefs in given social spaces (4).
Saka & al. (5) reported that stigma and discrimination
experienced by people living with HIV (PLWHIV) prevent and delay
access to prevention and treatment services. The aim of this study
was to describe the patterns of stigma and discrimination
experienced by PLWHIV in Togo and to identify the associated
69
factors. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013 among
PLWHIV in Togo in order to collect data on stigma or discrimination
experiences. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to
identify associated factors. A total of 891 PLWHIV were interviewed,
including 848 (95.2%) receiving antiretroviral therapy. External
stigma (37.9%) was the major form of stigmatization followed by
internalized stigma (35.4%). The main features of external stigma
were gossip (36.5%) and issues to access education (36.0%).
Internalized stigma mainly consisted of a feeling of guilt (37.6%) and
self-devaluation (36.0%). In univariate and multivariate analysis,
female gender was significantly associated with stigma (aOR 1.73,
95% CI 1.08-2.77). Of the 891 PLWHIV, 75 (8.4%) reported a violation
of their rights. Finally, 27 (4.1%) were discouraged from having
children by a health professional because of their HIV status. The
data demonstrate that stigma affects more than one-third of PLWHIV
in Togo, more particularly females. It appears necessary to design
new interventions and integrate psychosocial care in the
management of PLWHA, in addition to antiretroviral therapy (5).
Akatukwasa & al. (6) noticed that HIV-related stigma is a
frequently cited barrier to HIV testing and care engagement. A
nuanced understanding of HIV-related stigma is critical for
developing stigma-reduction interventions to optimize HIV-related
outcomes. This qualitative study documented HIV-related stigma
across eight communities in east Africa during the baseline year of a
large HIV test-and-treat trial (SEARCH, NCT: 01864603), prior to
implementation of widespread community HIV testing campaigns
and efforts to link individuals with HIV to care and treatment.
Findings revealed experiences of enacted, internalized, and
anticipated stigma that were highly gendered, and more pronounced
in communities with lower HIV prevalence; women, overwhelmingly,
both held and were targets of stigmatizing attitudes about HIV. Past
experiences with enacted stigma included acts of segregation, verbal
discrimination, physical violence, humiliation, and rejection.
Narratives among women, in particular, revealed acute internalized
stigma including feelings of worthlessness, shame, embarrassment,
and these resulted in anxiety and depression, including suicidality
among a small number of women. Anticipated stigma included fears
of marital dissolution, verbal and physical abuse, gossip and public
ridicule. Anticipated stigma was especially salient for women who
held internalized stigma and who had experienced enacted stigma
from their partners. Anticipated stigma led to care avoidance, care-
seeking at remote facilities, and hiding of HIV medications.
Interventions aimed at reducing individual and community-level
forms of stigma may be needed to improve the lives of PLHIV and
fully realize the promise of test-and-treat strategies (6).
Steenberg (7) mentioned that foreign-born immigrants residing in
South Africa largely come from sub-Saharan countries with the
highest HIV prevalence rates worldwide. These migrants may
manage HIV medically, despite precarious conditions, but little is
known about how they manage socially in shifting cultural and
clinical landscapes. In this article, The Author explored the
complexities of stigma by juxtaposing perceptions of illness between
HIV-positive Mozambican migrants in care and members of their
70
communities unaware of their own serostatus. The Author argued
that stigma is tied to location through social networks. Sharp
perceptual contrasts between patients and community members
result in equally contrasting social positionalities and othering in
sprawling migrant communities, where secrecy and gossip become
strategies of social survival. Due to its social lethality, stigma
continues to cause distress (7).
Gadisa & al. (8) emphasized that HIV status disclosure can help
patients obtain support which may influence treatment adherence
and subsequent healthcare needs. The extent of disclosure and
correlates of non-disclosure were examined among 1,180 adults
newly initiating antiretroviral treatment (ART). While 91% of those in
a relationship shared their status with their partners, 14% of the
overall sample had not disclosed to anyone. Non-disclosure was
positively associated with older age; control over household
resources; and concerns about unintended disclosure, life
disruptions, and family reactions. Knowing other HIV-positive people
and longer time since diagnosis were associated with lower odds of
non-disclosure. Most respondents reporting disclosure experienced
supportive responses, frequently including decision to get an HIV test
by confidants who had not known their own status. Although HIV
status disclosure prior to ART initiation was high, some individuals
cited concerns about unintended disclosure, gossip, and partner
violence, and may benefit from additional disclosure support (8).
Pfeiffer & Maithya (9) emphasized that since access to HIV
testing, counselling, and drug therapy has improved so dramatically,
scholars have investigated ways this 'scale-up' has interacted with
HIV/AIDS-related stigma in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on data
collected during ethnographic research in a trading center in western
Kenya, this paper critically analyses two violent and localized case
studies of panic over the ill health of particular community residents
as a nuanced lens through which to explore the dynamic interplay of
gender politics and processes of HIV/AIDS-related stigma in the
aftershocks of the AIDS crisis. Gaining theoretical momentum from
literatures focusing on stigma, gender, witchcraft, gossip, and
accusation, it was argued that the cases highlight collective anxieties,
as well as local critiques of shifting gender roles and the strain of
globalization and legacies of uneven development on myriad forms of
relationships. It was further contended that these heightened
moments of panic and accusation were deployments of power that
ultimately sharpened local gender politics and conflicts on the
ground in ways that complicated the social solidarity necessary to
tackle social and health inequalities. The paper highlights one
community's challenge to eradicate the stigma associated with
HIV/AIDS during a period of increased access to HIV services (9).
Kuteesa & al. (10) emphasized that there is limited data on stigma
among older HIV-infected adults in sub-Saharan Africa. The
experiences of stigma and disclosure were described in a cohort of
HIV-positive older people in Uganda. Using data from the Wellbeing
of Older Peoples' Study of Kalungu (rural site) and Wakiso district
(peri-urban site) residents, we measured self-reported stigma levels
for 183 respondents (94 on ART; 88, not on ART) using a stigma score
generated using three questions on stigma perceptions where 0
71
meant no stigma at all and 100 was maximum stigma. Based on two
questions on disclosure, an overall score was computed. High
disclosure was assigned to those who often or very often disclosed to
the family and were never or seldom afraid to disclose elsewhere.
the experiences of HIV stigma of 25 adults (52% females) were
examined using semi-structured, open-ended interviews and monthly
oral diaries over one year. Mean age of the respondents was 70
years (range 60-80 years) and 80% of all respondents were enrolled
in ART. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic content
analysis. Overall, 55% of respondents had a high disclosure score,
meaning they disclosed easily, and 47% had a high stigma score. The
stigma scores were similar among those with high and low disclosure
scores. In multivariate analyses with disclosure and stigma scores as
dependent variables none of the respondents' characteristics had a
significant effect at the 5% level. Qualitative data revealed that
stigma ranges from: 1] perceptions (relatively passive, but leading to
behavior such as gossip, especially if not intended maliciously); to 2]
discriminatory behavior (active or enacted stigma; from malicious
gossip to outright discrimination). Despite the relatively high levels
of disclosure, older people suffer from high levels of stigma of various
forms apart from HIV-related stigma. Efforts to assess for different
forms of stigma at an individual level deserve greater attention from
service providers and researchers and must be context specific (10).
Sao & al. (11) emphasized that stigma significantly impacts
retention in HIV care and quality of life among people living with HIV.
This study explored community-level HIV stigma from the perspective
of patients and healthcare workers in antenatal care (ANC) in Moshi,
Tanzania. In-depth interviews were conducted with 32 women (20
living with HIV), key-informant interviews with 7 ANC clinic
employees, and two focus group discussions with 13 community
health workers. Themes emerged related to drivers and
manifestations of stigma, resilience to stigmatizing attitudes, and
opportunities to address stigma in ANC. Drivers of stigma included a
fear of infection through social contact and associations of HIV with
physical weakness (e.g., death, sickness) and immoral behavior (e.g.,
sexual promiscuity). Manifestations included gossip, physical and
social isolation, and changes in intimate relationships. At the same
time, participants identified people who were resilient to stigmatizing
attitudes, most notably individuals who worked in healthcare, family
members with relevant life experiences, and some supportive male
partners. The data demonstrate that supportive family members,
partners, and healthcare workers can serve as role models for
stigma-resilient behavior through communication platforms and peer
programs in ANC. Manifestations of HIV stigma show clear links to
constructs of sexuality, gender, and masculinity, which may be
particularly impactful during pregnancy care. The persistence of
stigma emphasizes the need for innovation in addressing stigmatizing
attitudes in the community. Campaigns and policies should go
beyond dispelling myths about HIV transmission and immorality to
innovate peer-led and couples-based stigma reduction programming
in the ANC space (11).
Butt (12) mentioned that the province of Papua, Indonesia has
one of the fastest growing rates of HIV infection in Asia. Within
72
volatile political conditions, HIV has reached generalized epidemic
status for indigenous Papuans. This article explores the merits of
using the concept of local biologies as an analytic tool to assess the
range of factors which affect a local pattern of untreated HIV and
rapid onset of AIDS. A research team conducted 32 in-depth
interviews with HIV-positive indigenous persons and 15 interviews
with health care workers in urban and peri-urban sites in the central
highlands' region. The results show fear of gossip and stigmatization,
regional political conditions and gaps in care interweave to create
local biological conditions of evasion of care and rapid onset of AIDS.
The normative emphasis in contemporary scholarship on stigma as
shaping subjective responses to HIV needs to be complemented by a
full assessment of the physiological impact of health services, and the
ways political conditions trickle down and mediate local biological
patterns. The concept of local biologies is highly effective for
explaining the full scope of possible factors affecting the intersection
of social and physical realms for HIV-positive persons (12).
Maleke & al. (13) emphasized that there are gaps in HIV care for
men who have sex with men (MSM) in African settings, and HIV social
stigma plays a significant role in sustaining these gaps. A three-year
research project was conducted with 49 HIV-positive MSM in two
districts in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, to understand the
factors that inform HIV care seeking behaviors. Semi-structured
focus group discussions and interviews were conducted in IsiZulu,
SiSwati, and some code-switching into English, and these were audio-
recorded, transcribed, and translated into English. A constant
comparison approach was used to analyze these data. HIV social
stigma centered around gossip that sustained self-diagnosis and
delayed clinical care with decisions to use traditional healers to
mitigate the impact of gossip on their lives. More collaboration
models are needed between traditional healers and health
professionals to support the global goals for HIV testing and
treatment (13).
Manirankunda & al. (14) reported that HIV-related stigma and
discrimination are recognized barriers to HIV prevention, testing and
treatment among people of Sub-Saharan African descent (SSA) origin
living in Belgium, but insights into HIV related-stigma mechanisms
and outcomes are lacking for this population with high HIV
prevalence. Guided by Earnshaw and Chaudoir's stigma framework
(2009), this qualitative study was conducted using 10 focus-groups
with 76 SSA community members and 20 in-depth interviews with
SSA descendants living with HIV to explore specific HIV-stigma
mechanisms and outcomes and underlying drivers. Inductive and
deductive thematic analysis showed high degrees of stigma among
SSA communities driven by fear of HIV acquisition and
misconceptions in a migration context, negatively affecting SSA
descendants living with HIV. The results allowed for
contextualization of the framework: At the community level,
prejudices and stereotypes were major stigma mechanisms, while
physical distancing, gossips, sexual rejection, violence, and increased
HIV prevalence emerged as stigma outcomes. Among SSA
descendants living with HIV, enacted, anticipated, and internalized
stigmas were validated as stigma mechanisms, with witnessed stigma
73
as an additional mechanism. Self-isolation, community avoidance
and low utilization of non-HIV specialized healthcare were additional
outcomes. These results are relevant for tailoring interventions to
reduce HIV-related stigma (14).
Adam & al. (15) noticed that HIV-related stigma and HIV status
disclosure are important elements in the continuous fight against HIV
as this impact the prevention efforts and antiretroviral treatment
adherence among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV) in many
communities. The objectives of the study were to examine the
prevalence and experience of various types of HIV-related stigma and
HIV status disclosure among PLWHA in Volta region. A cross-
sectional design was used to collect quantitative data from 301
PLWHA. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and present data
on socio-demographic variables. Correlation analysis was done to
determine factors associated with HIV stigma and status disclosure
while a Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine differences in
internalized HIV stigma. The mean age of the participants was 44.82
(SD: 12.22), 224 (74.4%) were female, and 90% attained at least
primary education. A Pearson r analysis revealed that ethnicity
(r[299] = 0.170, p=0.003), religious affiliation (r[299] = -0.205,
p=0.001) and social support (r[299] = 0.142, p=0.014) significantly
predicted disclosure of HIV status. Fear of family rejection (62%) and
shame (56%) were reasons for non-disclosure of HIV status. A Mann-
Whitney's U-test revealed that females are more likely than males to
internalize HIV stigma. Community-related HIV stigma in the form of
gossip (56.1%), verbal harassment (30.9%), and physical harassment
(8.6%) was reported. The data show that a high rate of HIV status
disclosure was found with social support, ethnicity, and religious
affiliation being the associated factors. Internalized HIV stigma is
prevalent among PLWHA while community-related stigma impacts
HIV status disclosure. Strengthening social support systems and
implementing culturally appropriate educational interventions may
help in reducing community-related HIV stigma (15).
Russell & al. (16) noticed that ART has the potential to change
processes of HIV stigmatization. In this article, changing processes of
stigmatization among a group of PLWHIV on ART in Wakiso District,
Uganda, are analyzed using qualitative data from a study of PLWH's
self-management of HIV on ART. There were 38 respondents (20
women, 18 men) who had been taking ART for at least 1 year. They
were purposefully selected from government and non-government
ART providers. Two in-depth interviews were held with each
participant. Processes of reduced self-stigmatization were clearly
evident, caused by the recovery of their physical appearance and
support from health workers. However, most participants continued
to conceal their status because they anticipated stigma; for example,
they feared gossip, rejection and their status being used against
them. Anticipated stigma was gendered: women expressed greater
fear of enacted forms of stigma such as rejection by their partner; in
contrast men's fears focused on gossip, loss of dignity and self-
stigmatization. The evidence indicates that ART has not reduced
underlying structural drivers of stigmatization, notably gender
identities and inequalities, and that interventions are still required to
mitigate and tackle stigmatization, such as counselling, peer-led
74
education and support groups that can help PLWH reconstruct
alternative and more positive identities. A video abstract of this
article can be found at: https://youtu.be/WtIaZJQ3Y_8. (16).
Moyo & Perumal (17) explored the perceptions of school
principals and the experiences of disclosure amongst teachers living
with HIV. Due to HIV/AIDS-related stigma being prevalent in many
societies today, many infected people would rather not disclose their
status than deal with negative labelling and stereotyping. This study
utilized narrative inquiry as a qualitative research design that is
known to be a way of understanding experiences. Data was elicited
via narrative interviews from a purposeful sample of ten principals
and eight teachers living with HIV who were selected through
network sampling from Gauteng public urban schools. The study
found that stigma, fear of job loss and gossip deterred teachers from
disclosing their HIV status. In some instances, they disclosed due to
needing support, which principals provided in the form of
counselling, and also to explain absenteeism. Although principals
supported disclosure of teachers' HIV status so that they could
initiate care, confidentiality concerns showed that disclosure could
further worsen stigma and the culture of discrimination and moral
judgement that teachers living with HIV faced. The study
recommends on-going development of caring relationships to
deepen the understanding of the experiences of teachers living with
HIV. Nondisclosure of HIV status stands in the way of building caring
relationships between teachers and principals. There is still a need to
create safe, supportive, and empathetic environments in schools for
teachers living with HIV (17).
Jacobi & al. (18) mentioned that the universal access to treatment
and are for PLWHIV is a major problem especially in Sub-Saharan
Africa, where the majority of HIV infected people live. However,
equally important is the fact that HIV/AIDS-related stigma is
recognized to be a major obstacle to successfully control the spread
of this disease. In this study we measured the HIV/AIDS-related
stigma felt by PLWHIV in Cameroon using "The people living with HIV
stigma index" questionnaire developed by UNAIDS, International
Planned Parenthood Federation and Global Network of PLWHIV/AIDS
among others. A total of 200 questionnaires were anonymously
administered to PLWHIV in the HIV/AIDS treatment center of the
Regional Hospital Annex Buea in the South West Region of Cameroon
by trained academics who were themselves PLWHIV. In this setting
the major problems faced by the PLWHIV with regard to
stigmatization and discrimination were gossiping and verbal insults,
which was felt by about half of the interviewees. Equally important
was internal stigma, half of the PLWHIV felt ashamed and guilty to be
HIV infected. This is the first report of this kind in Cameroon. These
results will help to better understand HIV/AIDS-related stigma in this
setting and in turn will improve the quality of life of PLWHIV by
promoting their acceptance by the community (18).
Bagchi & al. (19) described findings from the first statewide
implementation of the PLHIV Stigma Index in the United States. The
goals of the study were to identify sources of stigma and contributing
factors as a means of developing stigma-reduction interventions in
New Jersey. Based on a sample of 371 PLHIV, the study found high
75
levels of internal and anticipated stigma, particularly feelings of self-
blame, anger, low self-esteem, fear of gossip, and fear of lack of
sexual intimacy. Forty-nine percent of participants stated that they
had experienced gossip in the past year, which was the most
common type of enacted stigma. Current use of antiretroviral
medications was the factor most strongly associated with enacted
stigma, while self-rated health had the strongest association with
internal and anticipated stigma. These findings were consistent with
studies implementing the Stigma Index in other countries and
locations within the United States. In New Jersey, people who were
unemployed or homeless and those who identified as someone
diagnosed with a mental illness or as a sex worker, most frequently
reported experiencing all three types of stigmas. The study's findings
suggest the need to invest in interventions to address needs for job
training, mental health services, and housing supports for PLHIV.
One result of the study was the formation of a new advocacy group,
the Coalition to End Discrimination, which seeks to develop new
policies and interventions to reduce HIV-related stigma in New Jersey
(19).
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2013;25(2):173-80.
19. Bagchi AD, Holzemer W, Peavy D. Predictors of enacted, internal,
and anticipated stigma among PLHIV in New Jersey. AIDS Care.
2019;31(7):827-35.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
de Souza & Levandoski (1) stated that violence in the work or
school environment is becoming a public health problem. Bullying in
this scenario is characterized by a set of aggressive, repetitive,
intentional behaviors which occur without evident motivation and
affects countless young people daily. This study aimed to verify the
incidence of bullying cases of elementary and high school students
during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing the reasons for this
victimization from an emic view; in addition, to compare associated
factors such as nutritional status and body image between victims
and non-victims of bullying. This is a non-probabilistic descriptive
design involving 115 students regularly enrolled in elementary and
high school in public schools in the city of Dourados-MS, Brazil. The
results indicated an incidence of 20.9% of victims, with verbal
aggression (swearing, nicknames, gossip) and social exclusion being
the most recurrent. A total of 78.2% of the victim students did not
suffer bullying during social distancing, and 87.3% felt safer in their
homes. The rate of overweight and obesity was similar between
victims and non-victims, similar to the body perception result. The
data indicate that social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic
was a protective barrier in school bullying actions (1).
Yang & Xin (2) mentioned that the ongoing coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has elicited concerns about public fear and
economic fallout. The current study takes a person-oriented
approach to identify the unique response patterns that underlie
three risk perception components (likelihood, severity, and
protection efficacy) of COVID-19, with information sources as
precursors and economic confidence as outcomes. A total of 1,074
Chinese citizens participated in a national online survey in early
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February 2020. A latent profile analysis showed that participants
exhibited one of three classes: Risk Neutrals (49.9%; moderate in all
components), Risk Deniers (14.3%; low likelihood, low severity, and
high protection efficacy), or Risk Exaggerators (35.8%; high likelihood,
high severity, and low protection efficacy). Subsequent analyses
showed that reliance on unofficial sources (gossip and news spread
among friends; WeChat) positively correlated with membership in
the Risk Exaggerators class. In turn, belonging in the Risk
Exaggerators class correlated with the lowest short-term (but not
long-term) economic confidence. This study suggests that exploring
the heterogeneity of the public risk perception might help the
government to design differentiated risk communication strategies
during the COVID-19 outbreak (2).
References
1. de Souza VM, Levandoski G. Social distancing as a protective barrier
against bullying actions among schoolchildren during the COVID-19
pandemic. Work. 2022;73(2):383-92.
2. Yang Z, Xin Z. Heterogeneous risk perception amid the outbreak of
COVID-19 in China: implications for economic confidence. Appl Psychol
Health Well Being. 2020;12(4):1000-18.
TUBERCULOSIS
Baral & al. (1) stressed that Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of
death. The condition is highly stigmatized, with considerable
discrimination towards sufferers. Although there have been several
studies assessing the extent of such discrimination, there is little
published research explicitly investigating the causes of the stigma
and discrimination associated with TB. The objectives of the research
were therefore to take the first steps towards determining the causes
of discrimination associated with TB. Data collection was performed
in Kathmandu, Nepal. Thirty-four in-depth interviews were
performed with TB patients, family members of patients, and
members of the community. Causes of self-discrimination identified
included fear of transmitting TB and avoiding gossip and potential
discrimination. Causes of discrimination by members of the general
public included: fear of a perceived risk of infection; perceived links
between TB and other causes of discrimination, particularly poverty
and low caste; perceived links between TB and disreputable
behavior; and perceptions that TB was a divine punishment.
Furthermore, some patients felt they were discriminated against by
health workers. The data show that a comprehensive package of
interventions, tailored to the local context, will be needed to address
the multiple causes of discrimination identified: basic population-
wide health education is unlikely to be effective (1).
Spruijt & al. (2) reported that tailored and culturally appropriate
latent TB infection screening and treatment programs, including
interventions against TB stigma, are needed to reduce TB incidence in
low TB incidence countries. However, the Authors lack insights in
stigma related to latent TB infection (LTBI) among target groups, such
as asylum seekers and refugees. The Authors therefore studied
knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and stigma associated with LTBI among
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Eritrean asylum seekers and refugees in the Netherlands.
Convenience sampling was used to interview adult Eritrean asylum
seekers and refugees: 26 semi-structured group interviews following
TB and LTBI related health education and LTBI screening, and 31
semi-structured individual interviews with Eritreans during or after
completion of LTBI treatment (November 2016-May 2018). A
thematic analysis was used to identify, analyze, and report patterns
in the data. Despite TB/LTBI education, misconceptions embedded in
cultural beliefs about TB transmission and prevention persisted. Fear
of getting infected with TB was the cause of reported enacted
(isolation and gossip) and anticipated (concealment of treatment and
self-isolation) stigma by participants on LTBI treatment. The data
show that the inability to differentiate LTBI from TB disease and
consequent fear of getting infected by persons with LTBI led to
enacted and anticipated stigma comparable to stigma related to TB
disease among Eritreans. Additional to continuous culturally
sensitive education activities, TB prevention programs should
implement evidence-based interventions reducing stigma at all
phases in the LTBI screening and treatment cascade (2).
References
1. Baral SC, Karki DK, Newell JN. Causes of stigma and discrimination
associated with tuberculosis in Nepal: a qualitative study. BMC Public
Health. 2007 Aug 16;7:211.
2. Spruijt I, Haile DT, van den Hof S, et al. Knowledge, attitudes,
beliefs, and stigma related to latent tuberculosis infection: a qualitative
study among Eritreans in the Netherland. BMC Public Health. 2020 Oct
23;20(1):1602.
SEXUALLY TRAMSMITTED INFECTIONS
According to Tasnim & al. (1) despite Guatemala's large
indigenous population, indigenous health is often neglected in
reported health data and interventions. Although this data is limited
in scope, it shows that indigenous people have poorer health
outcomes. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are now a growing
threat in Guatemala and pose great risk to the wellbeing of its
indigenous population. This qualitative pilot study assessed the
knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of STIs through semi-structured
interviews among a previously unstudied population of indigenous
Maya women (n=35, ages 18-50) in the six municipalities of Santa
Cruz La Laguna, Guatemala. Four key themes were identified: 1]
indigenous Maya women have limited factual knowledge about sex
and STIs; 2] widespread partner infidelity minimizes women's control
over preventing STI contraction; 3] close-knit communities and the
resulting heightened fear of gossip prevents communication and
hinders care seeking; and 4] lack of quality medical care and
inaccessibility of biomedical healthcare systems pose barriers to
seeking care for potential STIs. The data show that to address these
findings, we suggest methods to improve sexual education, combat
male infidelity, promote condom use, and improve health services to
reduce the incidence of STIs in Maya Guatemala (1).
79
Reference
1. Tasnim N, Heneine EM, MacDermod CM, et al. Assessment of Maya
women's knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs on sexually transmitted
infections in Guatemala: a qualitative pilot study. BMC Womens Health.
2020 Mar 21;20(1):58.
CANCER
de Souza Viana & al. (1) unveiled the existential movement of
being a woman survivor of breast cancer. Qualitative,
phenomenological, with Heideggerian analytics was used from 15
interviews, between October 2020 and January 2021 in a teaching
hospital in Minas Gerais. The construction of seven Meaning Units
was followed by comprehensive methodical moments. The being-
there-woman-survivor-of-breast-cancer showed itself in the ways of
being of everyday life, occupied in manuality of tasks inside and
outside the home, moved by impersonality and impropriety. The fear
of death, gossip, curiosity, and ambiguity were revealed that led to
decadence, experienced in the world of treatment and follow-up,
enabling being-with. The anguish that announced itself fleetingly
was followed by the decadence that most of the time the presence
remains. The data show that the need to structure a specialized and
interdisciplinary line of care is reinforced, in which care centered on
active and qualified listening encompasses multidimensionality,
envisioning women in aspects that permeate cancer survival (1).
Nagata & al. (2) mentioned that Japanese weekly magazines,
which have a circulation of over 2,700,000, play important roles in
communicating with the public. They offer a wide range of
information, entertainment, gossip, politics, and economics, and
often include articles on cancer. However, cancer articles in
magazines have not been systematically analyzed. Cancer-related
articles and advertisements were investigated in six major Japanese
weekly magazines to demonstrate trends in public interest regarding
cancer. The total number of articles assessed from July 2009 to
December 2010 was 36,914, of which 696 (1.9%) were cancer
articles. The total number of advertisements was 21,718, of which
340 (1.6%) were related to cancer. The number of cancer articles
demonstrated an upward trend during the study period. Articles
focused on lung (n=145) and urogenital cancer (n=122). The most
common content comprised therapies and diagnosis (n=340) and
case reports on individual patients (n=160). After a famous Japanese
comedian revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis, the number of
articles on prostate cancer increased from 2.0 to 6.6 per month.
Immunotherapy including some dubious folk therapies was the most
frequently reported cancer therapy in articles and advertisements
(30.4%). A small group of oncologists were repeatedly referred to in
comment sources; 35.6% of comments were presented by only five
doctors. The data show that6 cancer articles in weekly magazines are
common paper media for providing cancer information to the public.
However, the information provided might place emphasis on
unestablished treatments or biased opinions (2).
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References
1. de Souza Viana SF, de Oliveira Souza IE, do Carmo Pinto Coelho
Paiva A, et al. Experienced concept of breast cancer survivors: directions
for nursing and health care. Rev Gaucha Enferm. 2022 Dec
5;43:e20220095.
2. Nagata M, Takita M, Kishi Y, et al. Cancer articles in weekly
magazines: useful media to deliver cancer information to the public? Jpn J
Clin Oncol. 2013;43(4):426-30.
COMMUNICATION
Nicotera & al. (1) stated that quality communication is essential
for building strong nursing teams. Structurational divergence (SD)
theory explains how institutional factors can result in poor
communication and conflict cycles; the theory has been developed in
nursing context, although it is applicable to all organizational settings.
The design, implementation, and evaluation of an intervention were
described to reduce SD and improve nurses' work life and team-
member relationships. An intensive 9-hour course provided training
in conflict/SD analysis and dialogic conflict/SD management to 36
working nurses from a variety of settings. Quantitative pre- and
posttests were administered, with a comparison sample. The course
reduced measures of negative conflict attitudes and behaviors: direct
personalization, persecution feelings, negative relational effects,
ambiguity intolerance, and triangulation (gossiping and complaining
to uninvolved third parties). The course also increased important
attitudes necessary for productive dialogue and conflict
management: perceptions of positive relational effects, conflict
liking, and positive beliefs about arguing. As compared with
nonparticipants, participant posttests showed lower conflict
persecution; higher recognition of positive relational effects; lower
perceptions of negative relational effects; higher conflict liking; lower
ambiguity intolerance; and lower tendency to triangulate.
Qualitatively, participants perceived better understanding of, and felt
more empowered to manage, workplace conflicts and to sustain
healthier workplace relationships. This intervention can help nurses
develop tools to improve system-level function and build productive
team relationships (1).
Reference
1. Nicotera AM, Mahon MM, Wright KB. Communication that builds
teams: assessing a nursing conflict intervention. Nurs Adm Q. 2014;
38(3):248-60.
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES. Cegarra-Sanchez & al. (1)
emphasized that knowledge acquired from sources of unverified
information such as gossip, partial truths or lies, in this paper it is
termed as "counter-knowledge." The purpose of this paper is to
explore this topic through an exploration of the links between a
Hospital-in-the-Home Units (HHUs) learning process (LP), counter-
knowledge, and the utilization of communication technologies. The
following two questions are addressed: Does the reduction of
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counter-knowledge result in the utilization of communication
technologies? Does the development of counter-knowledge hinder
the LP? Design/methodology/approach. This paper examines the
relevance of communication technologies to the exploration and
exploitation of knowledge for 252 patients of a (HHU) within a
Spanish regional hospital. The data collected was analyzed using the
PLS-Graph. Findings To HHU managers, this study offers a set of
guidelines to assist in their gaining an understanding of the role of
counter-knowledge in organizational LPs and the potential
contribution of communication technologies. The findings support
the proposition that the negative effects of counter-knowledge can
be mitigated by using communication technologies. Originality/value
It is argued in this paper that counter-knowledge may play a variety
of different roles in the implementation of LPs. Specifically, the
assignment of communication technologies to homecare units has
given them the means to filter counter-knowledge and prevent users
from any possible problems caused by such counter-knowledge (1).
Falla & al. (2) mentioned that the internet is an area where young
people establish relationships and develop socially, emotionally, and
morally, but it also gives rise to certain forms of online behavior, such
as cybergossip, which are associated with cyberaggression and other
risky behavior. The aims of this study were to verify whether a
longitudinal association exists between cybergossip and
cyberaggression, and to discover which mechanisms of moral
disengagement may mediate this relationship. The final sample
consisted of 1,392 students (50% girls; Mage = 13.47; SD = 0.77), who
were surveyed in a three-wave longitudinal study at six-month
intervals. The results obtained confirmed a direct, positive
relationship between cybergossip, subsequent cyberaggression and
the mediation exerted by cognitive restructuring in this transition.
The importance of recognizing and detecting the fine distinction
between online gossip and cyberaggression were discussed with the
intention of doing harm and focus on the justifications used by young
people to normalize online bullying. To sum up, there is a clear need
to encourage ethical, responsible behavior in online interactions in
order to achieve well-balanced, more sustainable relationships in
classrooms (2).
Dehue & al. (3) described a survey on the prevalence and nature
of cyberbullying of and by youngsters and the parental perceptions.
Two questionnaires, one for youngsters and one for their parents,
were sent to 1,211 final-year pupils of primary schools and first-year
pupils of all levels of secondary schools and their parents. Pupils
completed the questionnaires in their classroom, and parents
completed them at home. The results show that about 16% of the
youngsters had engaged in bullying via the Internet and text
messages, while about 23% of the youngsters had been victims of
cyberbullying. Cyberbullying seems to be a rather anonymous,
individualistic activity, which primarily takes place at home. The
most frequently used nature of harassment were name-calling and
gossiping. Youngsters mostly react to cyberbullying by pretending to
ignore it, by really ignoring it, or by bullying the bully. Most parents
set rules for their children about the way to they should use the
Internet but are not really conscious of the harassments. They
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underestimate their own children's bullying behavior and have
insufficient notion of their children as victims of bullying (3).
Betts & Spenser (4) emphasized that the reported prevalence
rates of cyber victimization experiences and cyberbullying behaviors
vary. Part of this variation is likely due to the diverse definitions and
operationalizations of the constructs adopted in previous research
and the lack of psychometrically robust measures. Through 2 studies,
the authors developed (Study 1) and evaluated (Study 2) the cyber
victimization experiences and cyberbullying behaviors scales.
Participants in Study 1 were 393 (122 boys, 171 girls) and in Study 2
were 345 (153 boys, 192 girls) 11-15-year-olds who completed
measures of cyber victimization experiences, cyberbullying behaviors,
face-to-face victimization experiences, face-to-face bullying
behaviors, and social desirability. The 3-factor cyber victimization
experiences scale comprised threat, shared images, and personal
attack. The 3-factor cyberbullying behaviors scale comprised sharing
images, gossip, and personal attack. Both scales demonstrated
acceptable internal consistency and convergent validity (4).
Romera & al. (5) emphasized that cybergossip is the act of two or
more people making evaluative comments via digital devices about
somebody who is not present. This cyberbehavior affects the social
group in which it occurs and can either promote or hinder peer
relationships. Scientific studies that assess the nature of this
emerging and interactive behavior in the virtual world are limited.
Some research on traditional gossip has identified it as an inherent
and defining element of indirect relational aggression. This paper
adopts and argues for a wider definition of gossip that includes
positive comments and motivations. This work also suggests that
cybergossip has to be measured independently from traditional
gossip due to key differences when it occurs through ICT. This paper
presents the Colombian and Spanish validation of the Cybergossip
Questionnaire for Adolescents (CGQ-A), involving 3,747 high school
students (M= 13.98 years old, SD = 1.69; 48.5% male), of which 1,931
were Colombian and 1,816 were Spanish. Test models derived from
item response theory, confirmatory factor analysis, content
validation, and multi-group analysis were run on the full sample and
subsamples for each country and both genders. The obtained
optimal fit and psychometric properties confirm the robustness and
suitability of a one-dimensional structure for the cybergossip
instrument. The multi-group analysis shows that the cybergossip
construct is understood similarly in both countries and between girls
and boys. The composite reliability ratifies convergent and divergent
validity of the scale. Descriptive results show that Colombian
adolescents gossip less than their Spanish counterparts and that boys
and girls use cybergossip to the same extent. As a conclusion, this
study confirms the relationship between cybergossip and
cyberbullying, but it also supports a focus on positive cybergossip in
psychoeducational interventions to build positive virtual relationships
and prevent risky cyberbehaviors (5).
García-Fernández & al. (6) described gossip as a type of social
behavior present in all types of social networks, and cybergossip is an
emerging kind of online social behavior which can both promote and
hinder relationships between peers. The aim of this study was to
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explore the relation between involvement in cybergossip and the
development of behavior of social adjustment, bullying and
cyberbullying (aggression and victimization), based on gender and
age. A total of 510 secondary school students (49.4% girls) aged 12
to 17 years old (M = 14.01; SD = 1.38) were surveyed by self-report.
Questionnaires validated with adolescents were used to measure
bullying, social adjustment and cyberbullying. The results showed
that a high prevalence of involvement in cybergossip was associated
with bullying and cyberbullying behavior (aggression and
victimization), with girls showing the greatest involvement in
cybergossip. The discussion of the results focuses on the gender
difference, as well as the importance of the need for training in the
proper use of digital devices for social education and socialization (6).
Clark & al. (7) noticed that online learning has created another
potential avenue for incivility. Cyber-bullying, a form of incivility that
occurs in an electronic environment, includes posting rumors or
misinformation, gossiping, or publishing materials that defame and
humiliate others. This is the first of 2 articles detailing a study to
empirically measure nursing faculty and student perceptions of
incivility in an online learning environment (OLE). In this article, the
authors discuss the quantitative results including the types and
frequency of uncivil behaviors and the extent to which they are
perceived to be a problem in online courses. Part 2 in the
September/October issue will describe challenges and advantages of
the OLE, discuss specific ways to foster civility, and present strategies
to promote student success and retention (7).
Okazaki & al. (8) mentioned that online gossip has been
recognized as small talk on social networking sites (SNSs) that
influences consumer behavior, but little attention has been paid to its
role. This study makes three theoretical predictions: 1]propensity to
gossip online leads to greater information value, entertainment
value, and friendship value; 2] upon exposure to a high-involvement
product, online gossipers are more willing to spread such information
through electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in search of prestige or
fame as a knowledge expert; and 3]this tendency will be more
pronounced when they are connected with strong ties (rather than
weak ties) and belong to a large network (rather than a small
network). An experimental survey was conducted with a scenario
method. In total, 818 general consumers participated in the survey.
A multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) provides empirical
support for prediction 1]. With regard to predictions 2] and 3], a
series of three-way and two-way between-subjective ANOVAs were
performed. When a high-involvement product is promoted,
gossipers, rather than nongossipers, are more willing to participate in
eWOM on an SNS. Furthermore, a significant interaction effect
indicates that online gossipers' willingness to participate in eWOM
would be more pronounced if they belonged to a large network
rather than a small network. However, when a low-involvement
product is promoted, no interaction effect is found between online
gossip and network size. In closing, theoretical, and managerial
implications are discussed, while important limitations are
recognized (8).
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Abd-Elmagid & Dhillon (9) studied a general setting of gossip
networks in which a source node forwards its measurements (in the
form of status updates) about some observed physical process to a
set of monitoring nodes according to independent Poisson processes.
Furthermore, each monitoring node sends status updates about its
information status (about the process observed by the source) to the
other monitoring nodes according to independent Poisson processes.
The freshness of the information available at each monitoring node
was quantified in terms of Age of Information (AoI). While this
setting has been analyzed in a handful of prior works, the focus has
been on characterizing the average (i.e., marginal first moment) of
each age process. In contrast, the aim was to develop methods that
allow the characterization of higher-order marginal or joint moments
of the age processes in this setting. In particular, the stochastic
hybrid system (SHS) framework was first used to develop methods
that allow the characterization of the stationary marginal and joint
moment generating functions (MGFs) of age processes in the
network. These methods are then applied to derive the stationary
marginal and joint MGFs in three different topologies of gossip
networks, with which closed-form expressions was derived for
marginal or joint high-order statistics of age processes, such as the
variance of each age process and the correlation coefficients
between all possible pairwise combinations of age processes. The
analytical results demonstrate the importance of incorporating the
higher-order moments of age processes in the implementation and
optimization of age-aware gossip networks rather than just relying on
their average values (9).
Giardini & Vilone (10) emphasized that cooperation can be
supported by indirect reciprocity via reputation. Thanks to gossip,
reputations are built and circulated, and humans can identify
defectors and ostracize them. However, the evolutionary stability of
gossip is allegedly undermined by the fact that it is more error-prone
that direct observation, whereas ostracism could be ineffective if the
partner selection mechanism is not robust. The aim of this work is to
investigate the conditions under which the combination of gossip and
ostracism might support cooperation in groups of different sizes. The
extent to which errors were also interested in exploring in
transmission might undermine the reliability of gossip as a
mechanism for identifying defectors. The results show that a large
quantity of gossip is necessary to support cooperation, and that
group structure can mitigate the effects of errors in transmission
(10).
Xiong & al. (11) stated that being the target of negative school
gossip, a form of relational aggression, has been shown to be
associated with psychological and behavioral problems in youth
adolescents. Based on the experience avoidance model, this study
tested the association between negative school gossip and youth
adolescents' mobile phone addiction, and the serial mediation roles
of anxiety and experience avoidance in this relationship. Junior high
school students (n=837; ages 12-15; 50% girls) completed the
Negative School Gossip Scale, Anxiety Scale, Acceptance and Action
Questionnaire (AAQ-II), and Mobile Phone Addiction Scale in their
classrooms. The results of regression-based analyses showed that
85
after controlling for age and gender, 1] negative school gossip was
significantly associated with mobile phone addiction; 2] anxiety and
experience avoidance each significantly mediated this association; 3]
anxiety and experience avoidance serially mediated this association.
The results support the experience avoidance model and highlight
emotional factors as an internal mechanism by which negative school
gossip is associated with youth adolescents' mobile phone addiction.
The results also have implications for preventing and reducing youth
adolescents' mobile phone addiction (11).
Sánchez-Hernández & al. (12) reported that instagram is a social
networking site (SNS) that facilitate the social-comparison and
feedback-seeking (SCFS) processes, which are particularly relevant
during adolescence. Likes represent numeric evaluative feedback
and seem to be considered as a form of social reward. In this
research some psychosocial factors that could influence the
Instagram usage intensity (i.e., SCFS and motivations) were examined
and the moderating role of SCFS were analyzed in the relationship
between the number of likes on posts and adolescents' emotions.
The sample consisted of 182 adolescent students aged between 13
and 18 years (M = 15.35 years, SD = 1.11). The results show that the
social interaction, storage, and gossip motivations mediate the
relationship between SCFS and Instagram usage intensity, and that
the influence of the number of likes on emotions depended on the
degree of SCFS. The discussion of the findings emphasizes that likes
have a special social and affective relevance for adolescents with high
SCFS, who might become more emotionally susceptible to the
feedback they received from their audience on Instagram. This
research could be a precedent to future research and the
development of intervention programs based on the responsible use
of SNSs in an educative context (12).
References
1. Cegarra-Sanchez J, Cegarra-Navarro J-G, Wensley A, Manzano JD.
Overcoming counter-knowledge through telemedicine communication
technologies. J Health Organ Manag. 2017;31(7-8):730-45.
2. Falla D, Ortega-Ruiz R, Romera EM. Mechanisms of moral
disengagement in the transition from cybergossip to cyberaggression: a
Longitudinal Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jan
23;18(3):1000.
3. Dehue F, Bolman C, Völlink T. Cyberbullying: youngsters'
experiences and parental perception. Cyberpsychol Beha. 2008;
11(2):217-23.
4. Betts LR, Spenser KA. Developing the cyber victimization
experiences and cyberbullying behaviors scales. J Genet Psychol. 2017;
178(3):147-64.
5. Romera EM, Herrera-López M, Casas JA, et al. How much do
adolescents cybergossip? Scale development and validation in Spain and
Colombia. Front Psychol. 2018 Feb 12;9:126.
6. García-Fernández CM, Moreno-Moya M, Ortega-Ruiz R, Romera EM.
Adolescent involvement in cybergossip: influence on social adjustment,
bullying and cyberbullying. Span J Psychol. 2022 Feb 2;25:e6.
7. Clark CM, Werth L, Ahten S. Cyber-bullying and incivility in the
online learning environment, Part 1: Addressing faculty and student
perceptions. Nurse Educ. 2012;37(4):150-6.
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8. Okazaki S, Rubio N, Campo S. Do online gossipers promote brands?
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2013;16(2):100-7.
9. Abd-Elmagid MA, Dhillon HS. Distribution of the age of gossip in
networks. Entropy (Basel). 2023;25(2):364.
10. Giardini F, Vilone D. Evolution of gossip-based indirect reciprocity
on a bipartite network. Sci Rep. 2016 Nov 25;6:37931.
11. Xiong J, He C, Wei H. Negative school gossip and youth
adolescents' mobile phone addiction: mediating roles of anxiety and
experiential avoidance. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan
13;20(2):1444.
12. Sánchez-Hernández MD, Herrera MC, Expósito F. Does the number
of likes affect adolescents' emotions? The moderating role of social
comparison and feedback-seeking on instagram. J Psychol.
2022;156(3):200-23.
SEX PRACTICES
Clancy & al. (1) noticed that sext dissemination presents policy
and legislative challenges given its potential psychological, social, and
legal harms. A cross-national comparison of sext-image
dissemination is reported in a large sample of 1,148 young adults
aged 18-29 years (M = 22.54, SD = 2.50, 53.0% women, 47.0% men),
either U.S. (53.8%) or Australian (46.2%) residents. The results
indicate that 14% of young adults disseminated sexts, with no
difference by gender or country. Over 50% of respondents indicated
that the last time they received a disseminated sext, it was
unexpected or unwelcome, with women twice as likely as men to
receive unwelcome sexts. The most frequent motivations for sext
dissemination were similar cross-nationally, relating to the
attractiveness of the person depicted, as a joke, to gossip, because it
was not a big deal, bragging, roasting or teasing, and to increase
social status. Motivations of attractiveness, bragging, or social status
were more commonly endorsed by men, while women endorsed
reasons around gossip or roasting/teasing. Unique predictors of sext
dissemination included U.S. residence, requesting sexts, receiving
disseminated sexts, having one's own images disseminated, and
more positive subjective norms to dissemination, and there was a
country-gender interaction, where Australian women and U.S. men
were more likely to disseminate sexts than then U.S. women or
Australian men. The findings have implications for prevention
programs seeking to address harmful online sexual interactions,
including addressing respect, consent, and subjective norms
supporting non-consensual dissemination (1).
Oga & al. (2) stated that Sex workers face different types of sex
work-related stigma, which may include anticipated, perceived,
experienced, or internalized stigma. Sex work stigma can discourage
health care seeking and hamper STI and HIV prevention and
treatment efforts. There is a paucity of validated sex work-related
stigma measures, and this limits the ability to study the stigma
associated with sex work. A cross-sectional survey was conducted
that measured anticipated sex work-related stigma among male and
female sex workers in Kenya (n=729). The construct validity and
reliability of the anticipated stigma items were examined to establish
a conceptually and statistically valid scale. The analysis supported a
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15-item scale measuring five anticipated sex work stigma domains:
gossip and verbal abuse from family; gossip and verbal abuse from
healthcare workers; gossip and verbal abuse from friends and
community; physical abuse; and exclusion. The scale demonstrated
good face, content, and construct validity. Reliability was good for all
subscales and the overall scale. The scale demonstrated good model
fit statistics and good standardized factor loadings. The availability of
valid and reliable stigma measures will enhance efforts to
characterize and address stigma among sex workers and ultimately
support the protection, health, and well-being of this vulnerable
population (2).
Eyre & al. (3) examined adolescent understanding of the social
context of sexual behavior. Using grounded theory to interpret
interviews with 39 African American male and female adolescents,
the article builds a model of sex-related behavior as a set of
interrelated games. A courtship game involves communication of
sexual or romantic interest and, over time, formation of a romantic
relationship. A duplicity game draws on conventions of a courtship
game to trick a partner into having sex. A disclosure game spreads
stories about one's own and other's sex-related activities to peers in
a gossip network. Finally, a prestige game builds social reputation in
the eyes of peers, typically based on gender-specific standards. The
article concludes by examining the meanings that sex-related
behavior may have for adolescents and the potential use of social
knowledge for facilitating adolescent health (3).
Meekers & al. (4) mentioned that even when condoms are widely
available and affordable, adolescents may be reluctant to obtain
them. Hence, program managers need to understand what
determines youths' perceptions of access to condoms. This paper
analyzes focus group and survey data on condom access conducted
among male and female adolescents in urban Botswana. Although a
majority of sexually experienced adolescents have purchased
condoms from retail outlets, only about 50% have obtained condoms
from health facilities, even though the latter distribute free condoms.
This study shows that many adolescents perceive that access to
condoms is more difficult from public sector outlets than for private
sector outlets, because the public sector providers tend to question
the adolescents' behavior while the latter do not. To bypass this
problem, males tend to obtain condoms from friends. However,
females are reluctant to ask their friends for condoms because they
fear that their friends may gossip about them. The results of this
study indicate that adolescents' access to condoms can be improved
by interventions that improve the quality of interaction between
public sector providers and adolescents, destigmatize condom use,
expand private sector condom distribution, and that use peer sales
agents and educators (4).
Schensul & al. (5) explored the behaviors and meanings
associated with intimacy and sexuality among older adults with
diverse partners living in subsidized senior housing. It utilizes survey
and qualitative data from a mixed methods of ageing/HIV exposure
to illustrate gendered views on sexual and intimate behaviors, and
attitudes towards transactional/commercial sex. Data suggest that
women were cautious about engaging in intimate relationships, while
88
men sought them and the companionship, they provided to address
loneliness. Reasons for non-intimacy were age and health problems.
Generally speaking, both men and women had positive attitudes
towards sex. Men took risks by having multiple partners and using
condoms irregularly; women believed they could avoid risks by taking
time to get to know their partners, but never used condoms. Forty
per cent of men who saw sex workers were not regular condom
users. They traded risk of gossip, violence and infection for
companionship with women seeking money and physical safety.
Findings have implications for policies, counselling, and interventions
for older sexually active adults in institutional and residential settings
(5).
Villar & al. (6) explored staff attitudes and reactions towards
masturbation in long-term care facilities. Staff attitudes and
reactions towards the expression of sexuality in long-term care
facilities may be influenced by the nature of the sexual behavior
being expressed. Staff attitudes towards masturbation, a common
sexual behavior in such settings, have gone largely unexplored so far.
This was an exploratory, descriptive, qualitative research design.
Fifty-three staff members working in five different long-term care
facilities participated in the study. They were asked about what they
would think, how they would react, and what possible reactions they
might expect from workmates if they entered a room and found a
resident masturbating. The majority of participants considered that
masturbation was acceptable and avoiding interference was by far
the most common reaction, although other reactions also arose.
When asked about reactions attributed to workmates, mentions to
reprimanding the resident and gossiping/joking about the issue were
more frequent than acceptance. The data show that the discrepancy
between professionals' own reported attitudes and those attributed
to workmates suggests the existence of widespread negative
reactions towards sexual activity in later life. In the light of these
results, the necessity of developing explicit policies were underlined
regarding sexual issues. Formal training offered to staff would also
help to recognize and preserve resident's sexual rights and needs (6).
References
1. Clancy EM, Klettke B, Crossman AM, et al. Sext dissemination:
differences across nations in motivations and associations. Int J Environ
Res Public Health. 2021 Mar 2;18(5):2429.
2. Oga E, Stockton MA, Stewart C, et al. Validating a measure of
anticipated sex work-related stigma among male and female sex workers
in Kenya. Glob Public Health. 2022;17(12):3583-95.
3. Eyre SL, Hoffman V, Millstein SG. The gamesmanship of sex: a
model based on African American adolescent accounts. Med Anthropol Q.
1998;12(4):467-89.
4. Meekers D, Ahmed G, Molatlhegi MT. Understanding constraints to
adolescent condom procurement: the case of urban Botswana. AIDS Care.
2001;13(3):297-302.
5. Schensul JJ, Radda KE, Corbeil C. Sexual culture in low-income older
adult housing: norms, behaviours and risks. Cult Health Sex. 2018 Jun
18;1-15.
6. Villar F, Serrat R, Celdrán M, Fabà F. Staff attitudes and reactions
towards residents' masturbation in Spanish long-term care facilities. J Clin
Nurs. 2016;25(5-6):819-28.
89
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Brown & al. (1) stressed that despite increased institutional
safeguards and regularly updated statutory guidance that stresses
safeguarding is 'everybody's responsibility', children continue to be
sexually abused in institutional contexts in England and Wales. There
also remains a lack of contemporary knowledge about institutions'
responses to concerns about [risk of] child sexual abuse (CSA).
Reviewing Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) discretionary-decision
case files, as a detailed source of information about CSA in
institutions occurring in the last 5 years, the aim of this paper was to
understand what institutions knew about CSA and inappropriate
behaviors that indicated children could be at risk of harm prior to
formal disclosures to the DBS and how institutions did, or did not,
respond to this knowledge. Cases involved 32 male and 11 female
barred persons and 19 male and 51 female sexually abused children.
Thematic analysis was applied to 43 files where decisions were made
by the DBS to add individuals to the Children's Barred list (which
prevents them by law from working with children) between 2017 and
2020. In 79% of cases there was some level of awareness of concerns
relating to inappropriate behavior or CSA, through rumors and
gossip, concerns about professionalism, and observed changes in the
behavior of subsequently barred individuals or victims. There was
wide variation in the degree to which institutions responded. In a
small number of cases action was taken promptly; however, this was
not typical. The data show that institutions and professionals failed
in their duty of care by not taking any action at all, or responding
slowly in ways that did not prevent CSA (1).
Reference
1. Brown SJ, Zammit J, King S A contemporary case file analysis of
child sexual abuse in institutional settings in England and Wales. Child
Abuse Negl. 2022 Sep;131:105633.
MENTAL HEALTH
Novac & al. (1) emphasized that over the past few decades, a
sizable body of literature on the effects of rumors and gossip has
emerged. Addressing rumors in the workplace is an important
subject, as rumors have a direct impact on the quality of the work
environment and also on the productivity and creativity of the
employees. To date, little has been written on the effect of rumors
and gossip in psychiatric hospitals. This article presents case
vignettes of rumors spread in psychiatric hospitals and the impact on
team cohesion and morale among the staff implicated in these, too
often, neglected occurrences. Dynamic aspects with particular focus
on rumors in psychiatric units and suggestions for remedy and
treatment are presented (1).
Flink & al. (2) mentioned that mothers play a crucial role in the
help-seeking pathway of adolescents. This study examined how
mothers with different ethnic backgrounds perceive the issue of help-
seeking for internalizing problems (e.g., depression) in adolescent
girls. Seven focus group discussions were conducted with 41 Dutch,
Moroccan and Turkish mothers with a teenage daughter. Discussions
90
were conceptually framed within a model of help-seeking and
facilitated by a vignette. The internalizing problems sketched in the
vignette were recognized as severe nonetheless; identified long term
consequences varied per ethnic group. Negative attitudes towards
General Practitioners, inaccessible mental health services and denial
by daughters would hamper help-seeking. Fear of negative
judgments/gossiping was considered a barrier by Turkish and
Moroccan participants. Participants identified themselves and
schools as primary sources of help. Turkish participants also named
chaplains. To enhance utilization of mental health services by
(minority) youth it is important to also address maternal barriers (2).
Tavite & Tavite (3) revealed extremely high suicide prevalence in
Tokelau within the last 25 years. Attempted suicide rate of 40/1500
(and fatal suicide rate of 6/1500 (1980-2004) with increasing trend in
recent years. With consideration of the small population of 1500,
these rates are quite devastating. Attempted suicide was higher
among Male (65%) than Female, thou there was a 1:1 ratio between
genders in fatal suicides. Suicide was highest among the younger
population (14-25) years old. Eighty three percent (83%) of fatalities
were below the age of 25 and 67% were below the age of 20. Sixty
seven percent (67%) of fatal cases were reported in Fakaofo and
none was reported in Nukunonu. The most common method of
suicide was hanging (40% of attempted cases, 83% of fatal cases
hung themselves). This study revealed several factors that could
have caused or contributed to suicidal behaviors in Tokelau. These
included: failure within family relationships between parents and
children; relationships problems such as marriage breakdown;
boyfriend-girlfriend relationship problems; people gossiping and
public humiliation; loss of loved ones, loss of status within the
community; ashamed or afraid because they had done something
wrong/unacceptable; depressed, bored; or anger; and failure in
school examination. The outcome of this study calls for a
collaborative approach between the Government of Tokelau, non-
government bodies, churches, regional and international
organizations and the three local communities to develop and
implement appropriate preventative strategies to avoid losing
another loved one to this devastating action (3).
Dam & al. (4) reported that an estimated 23% of children
worldwide live with a parent experiencing mental illness. These
children are exposed to emotional and psychosocial challenges. Little
is known about these children when living in small-scale societies.
The aim was to explore how adults, who as children lived with
parents experiencing mental illness in a small-scale society, recalled
their childhood life. Individual interviews with 11 adults were
analyzed using content analysis. Living as a child with a parent
experiencing mental illness in a small-scale society was described as
"living in a paradox" which emerged from three categories:
"intergenerational help and caring," "barriers understanding parental
illness" and "everybody knows everybody". The children received
little or no support from family members, nor from health and
education professionals. In a small-scale society, stigma surrounding
mental illness is notable. Families often attempt to conceal mental
illness from outsiders with negative or adverse effects on children.
91
Implications for practice Mental healthcare professionals need to
consider the needs of children who have parents experiencing mental
illness. It is imperative for the well-being of the patients' children to
support them in understanding what is happening, turn gossiping in a
positive direction and address stigma in the communities (4).
Boyd & al. (5) mentioned that in Australia, rural adolescents still
face barriers to obtaining professional psychological help due to poor
availability and accessibility of services in rural areas when delay in
seeking help for mental health problems can lead to poorer
treatment outcomes. The aims of this study were to: investigate the
preferences and intentions of rural Australian youth towards seeking
help for mental health problems; determine predictors of help-
seeking intention among rural adolescents; and verify results from
previous qualitative research on the barriers to help-seeking in a rural
context. Participants were 201 adolescents recruited from 8 rural
schools in the state of Victoria, Australia. Participants ranged in age
from 11 to 18 years. Using the Accessibility and Remoteness Index of
Australia (ARIA+), approximately 149 participants were classified as
currently living in an inner regional area of Victoria, whereas 52
participants lived in an outer regional area. Participants completed
an open-ended survey of help-seeking intention. Overall, 55.7% of
the sample indicated that they would seek help for a mental health
problem. The majority of participants, regardless of subgroup,
indicated that they would seek help for a mental health problem
from a school counsellor as their first choice. Gender differences
were observed such that males had a higher preference for seeking
help from a psychologist than females. Furthermore, older
adolescents were more likely to prefer seeking help from a GP than
younger participants. A multivariate analysis of help-seeking
intentions revealed that ARIA was the only predictor of help-seeking
intention; however, when extreme scores of depression and anxiety
were also taken into account, these also predicted help-seeking
intention. A content analysis of the barriers to help-seeking
nominated by participants revealed that perceived limited availability
of professional services in towns, perceived social proximity and fear
of rural gossip, and difficulties associated with travelling to obtain
help were the most significant concerns for these youth. These
findings verify previous research on help-seeking among rural youth
and reinforce that these young people face additional barriers to
help-seeking by virtue of living in a rural environment. The
availability of services for rural youth needs to be improved, as do
young people's knowledge of service availability and access
(especially travel options). It must be taken into account that rural
adolescents of different ages and sex may differ in their help-seeking
preferences. Finally, mental health promotion work with rural youth
should consider the influence of rural culture on help-seeking
intentions (5).
References
1. Novac A, McEwan S, Bota RG. Negative rumor: contagion of a
psychiatric department. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2014;
16(2):PCC.13br01614.
92
2. Flink IJE, Beirens TMJ, Butte D, Raat H. The role of maternal
perceptions and ethnic background in the mental health help-seeking
pathway of adolescent girls. J Immigr Minor Health. 2013; 15(2):292-9.
3. Tavite A, Tavite S. Suicide in the Tokelau islands. Pac Health Dialog.
2009;15(2):67-83.
4. Dam K, Joensen DG, Hall EOC. Experiences of adults who as children
lived with a parent experiencing mental illness in a small-scale society : A
Qualitative study. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs. 2018;25(2):78-87.
5. Boyd CP, Hayes L, Nurse S, et al. Preferences and intention of rural
adolescents toward seeking help for mental health problems. Rural
Remote Health. 2011;11(1):1582.
This chapter (1-5) demonstrates various types of gossips
prevalent in our lives.
ATTITUDES
Ceylan & Çetinkaya (1) noticed that nurses providing 24-h care for
the primary caregiver role have a number of significant roles to play
in potential problems or conflicts associated with patient privacy and
confidentiality. The objective of the study is to determine the
prevailing attitudes towards gossip and the patient privacy practices
of nurses working in pediatric units. A descriptive and cross-sectional
design was used. A Descriptive Characteristics Form, a Gossip and
Rumour Attitude Scale and a Patient Privacy Scale were used to
collect data. A total of 112 pediatric nurses working in Turkey were
included in the study. The response rate was 79.43%. Permission to
conduct the study was obtained from the university's ethics
committee. The participants were informed of the aim of the study,
and voluntary participation, anonymous response and confidentiality
were explained to them. It was observed that nurses who had a
higher education level, who were educated about patient privacy and
who had read the patient rights regulations were more concerned
about patient privacy. Negative correlations were found between
the attitudes towards gossiping and the average scores on the
patient confidentiality scale. Nurses who negatively defined gossip
were more concerned about patient confidentiality. Privacy is
important for securing and protecting the personal, physical, and
psychological things that are important and special for patients. It is
argued that obstacles to maintaining the privacy of hospitalized
children and adolescents are a tolerant attitude towards gossiping a
lack of education about patient privacy and insufficient information
about patient's rights regulations and the Convention on the Rights
of the Child. The data show that a nurse's knowledge about the
provision of patient confidentiality affects their privacy practices. For
this reason, regular training sessions are recommended in hospitals
(1).
Jalil & al. (2) stated that as research regarding the targets and
initiators of workplace gossip is gaining traction, one perspective that
remains overlooked is the gossip receiver. Organizational
newcomers are a particularly relevant population to study the impact
of receiving negative gossip on because they use social information
93
to navigate an unfamiliar organizational terrain. A parallel
moderated mediation model is proposed in which receiving negative
gossip has contradicting effects on newcomer job anxiety through
perceived social inclusion and negative rumination, and
agreeableness as a boundary condition of the effects of receiving
negative gossip. Data were collected from 202 newcomers using a
four-wave time-lagged design and found that receiving negative
gossip increased newcomer job anxiety via negative rumination but
did not decrease job anxiety via perceived social inclusion. Further,
agreeableness moderated the effect of receiving negative gossip on
negative rumination (but not perceived social inclusion) such that the
effect of receiving negative gossip on negative rumination was
stronger for less agreeable newcomers. Lastly, the indirect effect of
receiving negative gossip on job anxiety via negative rumination was
stronger for less agreeable newcomers. Theoretical and practical
implications specific to gossip and newcomers are discussed (2).
Testori & al. (3) noticed that humans are often shown to
cooperate with one another. Most of the mechanisms that foster
cooperation among humans rely on reputation, which itself relies on
the acquisition of information about other people's behaviors.
Gossip has been proposed as a cheap yet efficient tool to acquire
information, and it has largely been proved to be an effective means
to foster and maintain cooperation. However, empirical studies
supporting this claim have ignored two aspects: 1] they often
compared gossip to treatments in which no reputation was available,
impeding a direct assessment of whether it is gossip that promotes
cooperation or rather the introduction of a reputation system; and 2]
they focused on pro-social gossip (e.g., gossip aimed at helping the
receiver), neglecting the impact of other types of gossip. It was
shown here that, in contrast with the widespread notion that gossip
promotes cooperation, gossip mostly depletes cooperation compared
to first-hand information. If lying is fruitful for individuals or if a
group's behavior is largely uncooperative, gossip leads to negative
reputational information and decreased cooperation (3).
Caivano & al. (4) emphasized that gossip is a common social
activity that children admit to engaging in. Although children
disapprove of negative gossip (Kuttler, Parker, & La Greca, 2002,
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 48, 105), less is known about how it is
perceived morally compared to positive gossip and how this changes
developmentally as children enter adolescence. Interestingly,
misbehaviors are evaluated differently depending on who commits
the act and whom it targets (Slomkowski & Killen, 1992, International
Journal of Behavioral Development, 15, 247), but this has not been
examined in the context of gossip. This study examined children's
moral evaluations of negative and positive valence gossip and how
this changed depending on the listener's relationship to the sharer
and target. Children (n=134, ages 8-16) completed vignettes,
evaluating the sharer's action from the listener's perspective, a 2
(valence: negative/positive) × 4 (relationship type: friend/unfamiliar
classmate of the sharer and target) design. Additionally, the gossip
topic was about the target's behavior with consequences for
him/herself or another (target behavior type: individual/relational
vignettes). The main findings revealed that negative gossip in the
94
sharer-classmate, target-friend condition was rated most negatively.
Furthermore, in the individual vignettes condition, positive gossip in
the sharer-friend, target-friend condition was rated more negatively
than the sharer-classmate, target-friend condition. Girls rated
negative gossip more negatively than boys, and adolescents rated
gossip more positively than children. Overall, this research allows us
to better understand when gossip is viewed as acceptable or
unacceptable during an important developmental period. Children
gossip about others negatively but disapprove of negative gossip.
Children and adolescents evaluate negative and positive behavior
differently. Children evaluate transgressions differently depending
on who commits them and whom the target is. Adolescents believe
that positive gossip is more socially acceptable compared to children.
Gossip shared by a classmate that targets a friend is rated negatively.
Girls view negative gossip as less acceptable compared to boys (4).
Reference
1. Ceylan SS, Çetinkaya B. Attitudes towards gossip and patient
privacy among paediatric nurses. Nurs Ethics. 2020;27(1):289-300.
2. Jalil D, Xu X, Jiang L, Wang H-J. Do not ask, but you shall still receive:
newcomer reactions to receiving negative gossip. Stress Health.
2022;38(5):989-1000.
3. Testori M, Hemelrijk CK, Beersma B. Gossip promotes cooperation
only when it is pro-socially motivated. Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 21;12(1):4790.
4. Caivano O, Leduc K, Talwar V. When is gossiping wrong? The
influence of valence and relationships on children's moral evaluations of
gossip. Br J Dev Psychol. 2020;38(2):219-38.
This chapter (1-4) shows that in nurses working in pediatric units
between the attitudes show negative correlations towards gossiping
and the average scores on the patient confidentiality scale.
Negative gossip has contradicting effects on newcomer job
anxiety through perceived social inclusion and negative rumination,
and agreeableness as a boundary condition of the effects of receiving
negative gossip.
Gossip mostly depletes cooperation compared to first-hand
information.
Negative gossip in the sharer-classmate, target-friend condition is
rated most negatively.
MANAGEMENT
Ribeiro & Blakeley (1) mentioned that gossip and rumor are
common forms of communication in the workplace. Consequently,
nursing administrators are challenged to find ways to manage these
grapevine activities. The Authors present an analysis of gossip and
rumor and discuss strategies for their prevention and control (1).
Dowd & al. (2) described rumor and gossip as long-standing means
of communication among humans and are prevalent in health care
settings in part due to the nature of the organization. Rumor and
gossip may be negative or positive, and health care supervisors
should monitor the grapevine and consider themselves personally
responsible for transmitting accurate information whenever possible
95
to ensure that rumor and gossip do not have a negative effect on the
department or institution (2).
Hess & Hagen (3) reported that evolutionary models of human
cooperation are increasingly emphasizing the role of reputation and
the requisite truthful "gossiping" about reputation-relevant behavior.
If resources were allocated among individuals according to their
reputations, competition for resources via competition for "good"
reputations would have created incentives for exaggerated or
deceptive gossip about oneself and one's competitors in ancestral
societies. Correspondingly, humans should have psychological
adaptations to assess gossip veracity. Using social psychological
methods, cues of gossip veracity was explored in four experiments. It
was found that simple reiteration increased gossip veracity, but only
for those who found the gossip relatively uninteresting. Multiple
sources of gossip increased its veracity, as did the independence of
those sources. Information that suggested alternative, benign
interpretations of gossip decreased its veracity. Competition
between a gossiper and her target decreased gossip veracity. These
results provide preliminary evidence for psychological adaptations for
assessing gossip veracity, mechanisms that might be used to assess
veracity in other domains involving social exchange of information
(3).
Blakeley & al. (4) mentioned that the unique features of the
operating room (OR) make it an ideal setting for the proliferation of
gossip and rumor. Although not always negative, these "grapevine"
communications can reduce productivity and work satisfaction.
Hence, OR managers need to understand these forms of
communication and prevent or control their negative consequences.
The authors offer suggestions for undertaking this challenge (4).
Morgan (5) noticed that nurse educators frequently know
intriguing personal information about students and must decide
whether to share such information with colleagues. While sharing
with colleagues is sometimes necessary, often it is not. Discussing
stories about students may be an effective stress-relieving strategy
for faculty, but stress reduction must not be achieved at the expense
of ethical behavior. The Author explores the fine line between gossip
and collegial discourse that focuses on educational goals, considers
whether a separate code of ethics for nurse educators is needed, and
offers recommendations for action (5).
Wu & al. (6) emphasized that gossip, or sharing information about
absent others, has been identified as an effective solution to free
rider problems in situations with conflicting interests. Yet, the
information transmitted via gossip can be biased, because gossipers
may send dishonest information about others for personal gains.
Such dishonest gossip makes reputation-based cooperation more
difficult to evolve. But when are people likely to share honest or
dishonest gossip? Formal models were built to provide the
theoretical foundation for individuals' gossip strategies, taking into
account the gossiper's fitness interdependence with the receiver and
the target. The models across four different games suggest a very
simple rule: when there is a perfect match (mismatch) between
fitness interdependence and the effect of honest gossip, the gossiper
should always be honest (dishonest); however, in the case of a partial
96
match, the gossiper should make a choice based on their fitness
interdependence with the receiver and the target and the marginal
cost/benefit in terms of pay-off differences caused by possible
choices of the receiver and the target in the game. Moreover,
gossipers can use this simple rule to make optimal decisions even
under noise. Empirical examples that support the predictions of the
model and potential extensions were discussed. This article is part of
the theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and honest
signalling' (6).
Zolala & al. (7) reported that since 2000, Iran has been delivering
training and treatment services, including methadone therapy, to
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive patients through
triangular clinics. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of
these activities at the HIV Triangulation Centre in the city of Kerman,
Iran, through clients' views. Participants were recruited using a
convenience sample and assessed through in-depth interviews, and
observations. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis, matrix-
based method. The results found problems in training and
counseling which was described by the staff to be due to the effects
of the economic difficulties of the clients, not being of the same sex
as the consultant, and lack of utilization of a variety of training
methods by the clients. Furthermore, the absorption of clients was
perceived as being affected by the appearance of the center, gossip
around the center, limited working hours, and interpersonal relations
between clients and staff. The clients also criticized the building of
the center as it failed to maintain anonymity of the patients. The
need for supplementary services, such as dentistry, was perceived by
many clients. The data show that the application of appropriate
strategies such as providing adequate training and removing the
obstacles of absorption should be taken into account to increase the
utility and coverage of the triangular clinic. These interventions could
be a range of activities, such as relocating the center to a more
decent place and encouraging the staff to appear in a professional
white coat to help gain the trust of clients (7).
Hills (8) mentioned that we've all experienced gossiping, missed
deadlines, someone taking credit for another's work, and little white
lies. These and other breaches of trust are commonplace. However,
they do more damage in the medical practice than many practice
managers realize. This article argues that medical practice
employees need to trust their managers, patients, doctors, one
another, and even the security of their jobs so they are able to focus
on their daily tasks and perform well. It defines trust as both a logical
and emotional act and describes common breaches of workplace
trust. It defines three characteristics of high-trust organizations and
illustrates through examples how practice managers can
demonstrate their trustworthiness through their actions, not only
through their words. This article also offers seven steps for
rebuilding trust that has been breached. It offers readers two
instruments: a survey tool practice managers can use to assess the
trust in their practices and a self-quiz practice managers can take to
assess their own trustworthiness. Finally, this article offers research
about the impact of trust on the bottom line and 10 truths about
97
trust that medical practice managers can share with their employees
(8).
This chapter (1-8) shows various strategies that can be used to
cope with gossip.
References
1. Ribeiro VE, Blakeley JA. The proactive management of rumor and
gossip. J Nurs Adm. 1995;25(6):43-50.
2. Dowd SB, Davidhizar R, Dowd LP. Rumors and gossip: a guide for
the health care supervisor. Health Care Superv. 1997;16(1):65-70.
3. Hess NH, Hagen EH. Psychological adaptations for assessing gossip
veracity. Hum Nat. 2006;17(3):337-54.
4. Blakeley JA, Ribeiro V, Hughes A. Managing rumor and gossip in
operating room settings. Semin Perioper Nurs. 1996;5(3):111-8.
5. Morgan JE. Confidential student information in nursing education.
Nurse Educ. 2001;26(6):289-92.
6. Wu J, Számadó S, Barclay P, et al. Honesty and dishonesty in gossip
strategies: a fitness interdependence analysis. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B
Biol Sci. 2021 Nov 22;376(1838):20200300.
7. Zolala F, Haghdoost AA, Zahmatkesh R, Shafiei M. Challenges in the
area of training and prevention at the HIV triangulation clinic, Kerman,
Iran. Addict Health. 2014;6(1-2):14-21.
8. Hills L. What to do when trust has been breached in your practice. J
Med Pract Manage. 2013;29(3):199-203.
SUMMARY
Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or
private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling.
Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has
found gossip to be an important means for people to monitor
cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect
reciprocity. Indirect reciprocity is a social interaction in which one
actor helps another and is then benefited by a third party. Gossip has
also been identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, as
aiding social bonding in large groups.
The present Research deals with one Biblical verse indicating
gossip "Thou shalt not go up and down as a gossiper among the
people" (Leviticus 19:16).
Therefore, the research deals with the characteristics of the
gossip, the types, the attitude, and the coping strategies.
Negative gossip has contradicting effects on newcomer job
anxiety through perceived social inclusion and negative rumination,
and agreeableness as a boundary condition of the effects of receiving
negative gossip. Gossip mostly depletes cooperation compared to
first-hand information. Negative gossip in the sharer-classmate,
target-friend condition is rated most negatively. Thus, negative
gossip has an adverse consequence on the human life.
Various strategies that can be used to cope with gossip.
In the recent years, the diagnostic possibilities have been
validated through scientific research and have shown medicinal value
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in the diagnostics and the management of conditions associated with
the gossip.
This research has shown that the awareness of the gossip has
accompanied humans during the long years of our existence.
