Individual differences in attitudes towards gossip

Abstract

Four studies were conducted to develop and validate a measure of individual differences in attitudes towards gossip (ATG). In Study 1, exploratory factor analyses of responses to a pool of ATG items identified two factors reflecting attitudes about gossip’s Social Value (SV) and Moral Value (MV), which provided the basis for constructing a 12-item ATG scale. In Study 2, the SV and MV factors were verified with confirmatory analysis. In Studies 3 and 4, the construct validity of the ATG scale was evidenced by (1) the ability of the SV subscale to predict interest in and intent to transmit gossip, (2) positive correlations with the Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire ( Nevo, Nevo, & Derech-Zehavi, 1994) and (3) negative correlations with social approval needs.