How Gossip Rules the World: Three Hypotheses

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The recent surge in research interest about gossip can be attributed, at least in part, to the possibility that this activity underlies two of the unique features of human society, when compared to those of all other social vertebrates, their scale and their complexity. Two hypotheses have emerged which touch on these features, respectively that gossip supports exceptional levels of sociability, and that it operates as a form of social control ensuring exceptional levels of cooperation. Each of these hypotheses is critically examined before considering a third and relatively neglected possibility, namely that the principle significance of gossip in social life is that it supports prediction about the future behavior of others.