Children’s understanding of friendship formation caused by gossip

Abstract

Previous studies with adults argued that gossiping contributes to friendship formation. Although some evidence suggests that gossip is also ubiquitous in children’s lives, whether children understand its effect has not been investigated. In this study, we examined how children aged 6–10 years understand the effect of gossip on friendship formation between two individuals. They heard six vignettes where a protagonist heard a piece of gossip about a target from a gossip spreader and answered whether the protagonist wanted to be friends with the spreader. In these vignettes, we manipulated the valence of gossip (positive/negative) and the shared mindset between the protagonist and the gossip spreader (having the same/opposite/no opinion about the gossip target). We found that the children thought that the protagonist wanted to form a friendship with the person who spread positive gossip, but the extent of the protagonist’s desire to befriend the gossip spreader depended on their shared mindset. On the other hand, the children thought that the protagonist wanted to befriend the person who spread negative gossip when the protagonist had the same opinion about the target. These findings suggest that the children’s inference of friendship formation caused by gossip depended on the valence of gossip and whether a shared mindset existed between the two individuals. This is the first evidence that reveals how children understand the social consequences of gossiping.