PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Gossip and ostracism may have hidden group benefits

2014-01-28
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Anna Mikulak
amikulak@psychologicalscience.org
202-293-9300
Association for Psychological Science
Gossip and ostracism may have hidden group benefits Conventional wisdom holds that gossip and social exclusion are always malicious, undermining trust and morale in groups. But sharing this kind of "reputational information" could have benefits for society, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Robb Willer, an associate professor of sociology, explored the nature of gossip and ostracism in collaboration with co-authors Matthew Feinberg, a Stanford University postdoctoral researcher, and Michael Schultz from the University of California–Berkeley.

Their research shows that gossip and ostracism can have positive effects, serving as tools by which groups reform bullies, thwart exploitation of "nice people," and encourage cooperation.

"Groups that allow their members to gossip," said Feinberg, "sustain cooperation and deter selfishness better than those that don't. And groups do even better if they can gossip and ostracize untrustworthy members. While both of these behaviors can be misused, our findings suggest that they also serve very important functions for groups and society."

The researchers divided 216 participants into groups, asking them to play a game and make financial choices that would benefit their respective groups.

Researchers commonly use this public-goods exercise to examine social dilemmas because individual participants will benefit the most by selfishly free-riding off everyone else's contributions while contributing nothing themselves.

Before moving on to the next round with an entirely new group, participants could gossip about their prior group members. Future group members then received that information and could decide to exclude – ostracize – a suspect participant from the group before deciding to make their next financial choices.

Invest in the public good

The researchers found that when people learn about the behavior of others through gossip, they use this information to align with those deemed cooperative. Those who have behaved selfishly can then be excluded from group activities based on the prevailing gossip. This serves the group's greater good, for selfish types are known to exploit more cooperative people for their own gains.

"By removing defectors, more cooperative individuals can more freely invest in the public good without fear of exploitation," the researchers noted.

However, there is hope for the castaways. When people know that others may gossip about them – and experience the resulting social exclusion – they tend to learn from the experience and reform their behavior by cooperating more in future group settings. In contrast, highly anonymous groups, like many Internet message boards, lack accountability and thereby allow antisocial behavior to thrive.

"Those who do not reform their behavior, behaving selfishly despite the risk of gossip and ostracism, tended to be targeted by other group members who took pains to tell future group members about the person's untrustworthy behavior," Willer said. "These future groups could then detect and exclude more selfish individuals, ensuring they could avoid being taken advantage of."

The very threat of ostracism frequently deterred selfishness in the group. Even people who had been ostracized often contributed at higher levels when they returned to the group. "Exclusion compelled them to conform to the more cooperative behavior of the rest of the group," the researchers wrote.

The study reflects past research showing that when people know others may talk about their reputation, they tend to behave more generously. Where reputational concerns are especially strong, people sometimes engage in "competitive altruism," attempting to be highly pro-social to avoid exclusion from a group. The same appears to hold true for those returning from "exile" – the incentive is to cooperate rather than risk more trouble.

"Despite negative connotations, the pairing of the capacity to gossip and to ostracize undesirable individuals from groups has a strong positive effect on cooperation levels in groups," Willer said.

Real-world implications

Looking ahead, Willer and his colleagues are conducting field experiments on how the threat of gossip and exclusion affect behavior in real-world settings – in one study, for instance, they're calling car repair shops for estimates, with one group of callers stating they are active users of Yelp, the online review service that can make or break reputations.

As Willer points out, whether one calls it gossip or "reputational information sharing," as sociologists and psychologists do, this behavior, along with ostracism, seems fundamental to human nature.

People pass on information about how others behave in workplaces, student workgroups, business and political coalitions, on the Internet, in volunteer organizations and beyond. While much of this behavior may be undesirable and malicious, a lot of it is critical to deterring selfishness and maintaining social order in groups.

"I think it does speak to the mechanisms that keep people behaving honestly and generously in many settings and, where behavior is entirely anonymous, helps explain when they don't," Willer said.

###

For more information about this study, please contact:

Robb Willer, Sociology: (607) 339-6466, willer@stanford.edu

Matthew Feinberg, Graduate School of Business: (510) 847-5752, matthewfeinberg1@gmail.com

The article abstract is available online: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/01/24/0956797613510184.abstract

The APS journal Psychological Science is the highest ranked empirical journal in psychology. For a copy of the article "Gossip and Ostracism Promote Cooperation in Groups" and access to other Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

OU study in Oklahoma panhandle finds additional active process producing nanodiamonds

2014-01-28
In a University of Oklahoma-led study, researchers discovered an additional active process, not excluding an extraterrestrial event, that may have led to high concentrations of nanodiamonds in Younger ...

Asian ozone pollution in Hawaii is tied to climate variability

2014-01-28
Air pollution from Asia has been rising for several decades but Hawaii had seemed to escape the ozone pollution that drifts east with the springtime winds. Now a team of researchers has found that shifts ...

University of Montreal study analyzes content of nightmares and bad dreams

2014-01-28
This news release is available in French. MONTREAL, January 28, 2014 - According to a new study by researchers at the ...

NASA spacecraft take aim at nearby supernova

2014-01-27
An exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered on Jan. 21 has become the focus of observatories around and above the globe, including several NASA spacecraft. The blast, designated SN 2014J, occurred ...

Biases in animal studies may differ from those in clinical trials, UCSF study finds

2014-01-27
A new analysis of animal studies on cholesterol-lowering statins by UC San Francisco researchers found that non-industry studies had results that favored the ...

Immune system drives pregnancy complications after fetal surgery in mice

2014-01-27
As a fetal surgeon at UC San Francisco, Tippi MacKenzie, MD, has long known that ...

Temple surgeon working to bring new stent for aortic aneurysms to patients in the US

2014-01-27
Temple University Hospital (TUH) could be among the first U.S.-based hospitals to test a new device known as a multilayer stent in patients suffering from aortic ...

Picture of how our climate is affected by greenhouse gases is a 'cloudy' one

2014-01-27
Jerusalem, Jan. 26, 2014 – The warming effect of human-induced greenhouse gases is a given, but to what extent ...

Getting a charge from changes in humidity

2014-01-27
BOSTON — A new type of electrical generator uses bacterial spores ...

JCI early table of contents for Jan. 27, 2014

2014-01-27
Inhibition of kidney glucose transport improves hyperglycemia but increases glucose production Treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) with the drug metformin greatly reduces diabetic complications ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Designing a sulfur vacancy redox disruptor for photothermoelectric and cascade‑catalytic‑driven cuproptosis–ferroptosis–apoptosis therapy

Recent advances in dynamic biomacromolecular modifications and chemical interventions: Perspective from a Chinese chemical biology consortium

CRF and the Jon DeHaan Foundation to launch TCT AI Lab at TCT 2025

Canada’s fastest academic supercomputer is now online at SFU after $80m upgrades

Architecture’s past holds the key to sustainable future

Laser correction for short-sightedness is safe and effective for older teenagers

About one in five people taking Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro say food tastes saltier or sweeter than before

Taking semaglutide turns down food noise, research suggests

Type 2 diabetes may double risk of sepsis, large community-based study suggests

New quantum sensors can withstand extreme pressure

Tirzepatide more cost-effective than semaglutide in patients with knee osteoarthritis and obesity

GLP-1 drugs shown cost-effective for knee osteoarthritis and obesity

Interactive apps, AI chatbots promote playfulness, reduce privacy concerns

How NIL boosts college football’s competitive balance

Moffitt researchers develop machine learning model to predict urgent care visits for lung cancer patients

Construction secrets of honeybees: Study reveals how bees build hives in tricky spots

Wheat disease losses total $2.9 billion across the United States and Canada between 2018 and 2021

New funding fuels development of first potentially regenerative treatment for multiple sclerosis

NJIT student–faculty team wins best presentation award for ant swarm simulation

Ants defend plants from herbivores but can hinder pollination

When the wireless data runs dry

Inquiry into the history of science shows an early “inherence” bias

Picky eaters endure: Ecologists use DNA to explore diet breadth of wild herbivores

Study suggests most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving time

Increasing the level of the protein PI31 demonstrates neuroprotective effects in mice

Multi-energy X-ray curved surface imaging-with multi-layer in-situ grown scintillators

Metasurface enables compact and high-sensitivity atomic magnetometer

PFAS presence confirmed in the blood of children in Gipuzkoa

Why do people believe lies?

SwRI installs private 5G network for research, development, testing and evaluation

[Press-News.org] Gossip and ostracism may have hidden group benefits