Pssst... Gossip Might Serve a Useful Function
May-22-2011

Gossip can be malicious and mean, but it also may serve a protective purpose, forcing the brain to focus on people who might be threatening, a new study suggests.
Volunteers shown pictures of otherwise unmemorable faces lingered longer over pictures of people about whom they'd heard unflattering information, researchers say.
When shown images in which they had been told something positive or neutral about the person, the volunteers spent less time looking at them. That also was true for faces they observed for the first time without knowing anything about them.
From a practical standpoint, it suggests that negative gossip helps people better predict who might hurt them, say researchers from Northeastern University in Boston.

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Posted by Ken at 12:00 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print