A person’s raising the social ladder and communication with others depends on gossip, regardless of country of residence. Reported by the University of Washington.
Gossip – that is, “unofficial” information circulating in society, mainly about a person’s reputation – is traditionally considered the least reliable and important source of information. However, they often form the basis of interpersonal and even business relationships.
American scientists to solvewhether it is a feature of Western culture or universal to humanity as a whole. To do this, they experimented with 120 participants working in the USA and India, and 160 Ngandu gardeners who, after making some cultural adjustments, make a living from small gardens in the Central African Republic. They found similar results in all three groups.
Respondents were asked if they were willing to give someone a resource (a promotion or a family heirloom) depending on what kind of gossip was being made about him from different areas of life. For example, it has been reported whether an abstract person is willing to work late to finish a project or gets along well with siblings.
In the end, it turned out that gossip influences a person’s willingness to provide some kind of resource on the subject of gossip. Roughly speaking, gossip about the desire to work hard affected the possibility of promotion, and family relationships – the desire to get closer in family life. At the same time, the impact of gossip was almost the same for participants from all three countries.