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The Bright and Dark Side of Gossip for Cooperation in Groups.

ABSTRACT: Recent experimental studies seem to concur that gossip is good for groups by showing that gossip stems from prosocial motives to protect group members from non-cooperators. Thus, these studies emphasize the "bright" side of gossip. However, scattered studies point to detrimental outcomes of gossip for individuals and groups, arguing that a "dark" side of gossip exists. To understand the implications of gossip for cooperation in groups, both the dark and bright side of gossip must be illuminated. We investigated both sides of gossip in two scenario studies. In Study 1 (N = 108), we confronted participants with a free-rider in their group and manipulated whether the gossip recipient was the free-rider's potential victim or not. Participants showed a higher group protection motivation in response to gossip when imagining gossiping to a potential victim of a norm violator compared to a non-victim. They showed a higher emotion venting motivation when imagining gossiping to a non-victim compared to a potential victim. Both these gossip motives were related to an increased tendency to gossip. In Study 2 (N = 104), we manipulated whether participants were the targets or observers of gossip and whether the gossip was true or false. Results showed that targets of negative gossip intended to increase their work effort in the short run, but only when the gossip was true. Furthermore, gossip targets reported lower long-term cooperative intentions toward their workgroup regardless of gossip veracity. This paper demonstrates that gossip has both a "dark" and "bright" side and that situational factors and agent perspectives determine which side prevails.

SUBMITTER: Dores Cruz TD

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6596322 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Bright and Dark Side of Gossip for Cooperation in Groups.

Dores Cruz Terence D TD Beersma Bianca B Dijkstra Maria T M MTM Bechtoldt Myriam N MN

Frontiers in psychology 20190620

Recent experimental studies seem to concur that gossip is good for groups by showing that gossip stems from prosocial motives to protect group members from non-cooperators. Thus, these studies emphasize the "bright" side of gossip. However, scattered studies point to detrimental outcomes of gossip for individuals and groups, arguing that a "dark" side of gossip exists. To understand the implications of gossip for cooperation in groups, both the dark and bright side of gossip must be illuminated. ...[more]

PMID: 31281281

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Project description:BackgroundA growing number of studies have sought to examine the health associations of workplace social capital; however, evidence of associations with overweight is sparse. We examined the association between individual perceptions of workplace social capital and overweight among Japanese male and female employees.Methodology/principal findingsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey among full-time employees at a company in Osaka prefecture in February 2012. We used an 8-item measure to assess overall and sub-dimensions of workplace social capital, divided into tertiles. Of 1050 employees, 849 responded, and 750 (624 men and 126 women) could be linked to annual health check-up data in the analysis. Binomial logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for overweight (body mass index: ≥ 25 kg/m(2), calculated from measured weight and height) separately for men and women. The prevalence of overweight was 24.5% among men and 14.3% among women. Among men, low levels of bonding and linking social capital in the workplace were associated with a nearly 2-fold risk of overweight compared to high corresponding dimensions of social capital when adjusted for age, sleep hours, physiological distress, and lifestyle. In contrast, among women we found lower overall and linking social capital to be associated with lower odds for overweight even after covariate adjustment. Subsequently, we used multinomial logistic regression analyses to assess the relationships between a 1 standard deviation (SD) decrease in mean social capital and odds of underweight/overweight relative to normal weight. Among men, a 1-SD decrease in overall, bonding, and linking social capital was significantly associated with higher odds of overweight, but not with underweight. Among women, no significant associations were found for either overweight or underweight.Conclusions/significanceWe found opposite gender relationships between perceived low linking workplace social capital and overweight among Japanese employees.

Dataset Information

The Bright and Dark Side of Gossip for Cooperation in Groups.

Publications

The Bright and Dark Side of Gossip for Cooperation in Groups.

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