Gossip

Gossip is a form of social conversation in which information is intentionally exchanged about people who are not present. The term means a social conversation about trivial topics, often based on rumors. In addition, gossip also explicitly stands for the inconsequential, to the point of being intentionally false. This distinguishes it from gossip, which denotes rather aimless chatter and telling. (Hence the distinguishing "and" in the idiom "gossip"). The English term gossip is now also used in German, often in connection with international celebrities and rather with a friendly, harmless connotation.

In many cultures, gossip is considered immoral. According to Jewish law, for example, a distinction is made between the honor crimes rechilut (Hebrew for "gossip"), lashon hara (Hebrew לשון הרע for "defamation"), and motzi shem ra (Hebrew for "insult," "slander"), in ascending severity. Thus God punishes Miriam with leprosy for a week when she is guilty of an honor offense against her brother Moses by disparaging him and his Cushite wife.

Gossip and the origin of human language

Gossip communication serves to cultivate community: the vast majority of a person's daily conversation is about interpersonal concerns of real or supposed group members, i.e. it is "gossip". This is as true today as it was in the past, explains the English primatologist and psychologist Robin Dunbar, professor at the University of Liverpool, in his major work Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language.

The use of speech sounds at the beginning of the evolution of human language was communication in larger hordes of primitive humans. Dunbar assumes that the speech sounds had the same function at the beginning as the rummaging (grooming) in smaller hordes: Gossip was putty that held the community together. Many primate researchers believe that only a large "social" brain makes it possible to live together in large groups. It was the evolution of language, Dunbar argues, that made it possible to provide social cohesion in groups of 150: "It allows us to interact with a number of individuals simultaneously and share information about the state of our social network." Explicit gossip communication revolves around what is "normal" and permissible and what may be disreputable. Thus, when observations and opinions about the behavior of others are exchanged, social norms are negotiated. Real secrets are the culmination of gossip communication, not its normal case.

Research

Social science approaches

Ethnology and sociology, especially social psychology, are concerned with the topic of gossip, its forms of communication, its social function and its social reception. Particularly around or under the influence of the Manchester School, its founder Max Gluckman as well as J. Clyde Mitchell and Jörg Bergmann, among others, have thoroughly analysed gossip.

Social control through gossip

Gossip itself and the fear of gossip form the basis for social control within a community. Social control is usually reciprocal, since normally everyone is equally afraid of gossip, even if some do not admit it to themselves. If a community's norms and values are violated, this facilitates gossip; however, it can also create and pass on inaccurate rumors. Gossip is thus also a means of intrigue, that is, of settling hostilities and rivalries without whoever is gossiping behind their backs (hence the obsolete term "afterspeech") having to confront the person concerned themselves. Thus gossip also serves the (usually only apparent or temporary) levelling of differences in power and status.

Gossip is socially considered a vice. In many religious communities, there are rules prohibiting gossip. Nevertheless, gossip serves as social cement and has been found in oral storytelling in every culture. Simpler forms of gossip in dense socialnetworks correspond primarily to the need to be able to talk and exchange news (about acquaintances and the immediate community) ("village gossip", "coastal gossip").

Gossip about celebrities is the domain of the tabloid press (yellow press, rainbow press) or the gossip columns of certain newspapers. This "gossip industry" today occupies a significant global role. The social function behind the apparently enormous need to know details, even of a private to intimate nature, about leading social figures is a very complex phenomenon and is not yet fully understood. Studies of ape social structure suggest that insight into tensions in the leadership hierarchy is of great importance to each group member - and the group as a whole - and is closely registered.

High demands on the gossip

Since the functions explained and the interplay in gossip are very complex, gossip, in the sociological view, requires a certain communicative competence on the part of the persons talking. Jörg Bergmann even goes so far as to speak of an art of disclosures about third parties. This explains why secrets can remain "secrets" within a community, even if everyone actually knows about them. For gossip reveals directly and in the unofficial, in contrast to scandals, which convey secrets to public opinion as a tribunal.

Evolutionary Psychology

In evolutionary psychology, gossip is seen, on the one hand, as an adaptation that enabled humans to disseminate information about others and to "keep track" of the behavior of fellow humans even in a large social network: gossip can effectively promote cooperation within a group by passing information about non-cooperative individuals. However, this has been criticized as an overly androcentric assumption that does not explain differences in behavior between men and women. Indeed, gossip, on the other hand, can also be used as a covert aggressive tactic with low fitness costs to compete with others for valuable resources. Thus, women prefer indirect aggression using tactics such as gossip and social exclusion to target rivals compared to men who use more direct forms of aggression (e.g., physical aggression). For this reason, it has been argued that heterosexual women use gossip as their primary weapon of choice in intrasexual competition to outmaneuver rivals, damage their reputations, and make them less desirable as partners to men. This involves attacking the physical attractiveness and sexual reputation of other women, reflecting men's evolutionarily developed mating preferences.

Historical joke postcard with "honorary diploma" from the "Klatschbasen-Bund", around 1900