When and why does gossip increase prosocial behavior?

Curr Opin Psychol

Department of Social Psychology, Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Published: April 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • Gossip can promote prosocial behavior, but its effectiveness depends on three key factors: the accuracy of the gossip, the relationship between the gossiper and the target, and the target's awareness of potential gossip.
  • Mixed findings in previous research highlight the need for a clearer understanding of when gossip is beneficial versus harmful in social settings.
  • The review suggests future research directions to further explore how gossip influences behavior within groups and society.

Article Abstract

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, we illuminate the relationship between gossip and prosocial behavior, reconcile disparate findings, and suggest new directions for research. Our review reveals that gossip increases prosocial behavior to the degree that a) it is accurate rather than inaccurate, b) 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. We discuss implications of our reviewed findings for understanding when gossip serves to uphold desirable behavior and when it inadvertently engenders undesirable behavior.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.10.009DOI Listing

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