Be careful, it is not a question here of criticizing or spreading rumors at all costs but of this almost natural inclination that we all have to…talk. An act most often performed without the intention of harming, as demonstrated by a study published in 2019 in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science , conducted on 500 people and at the end of which it was concluded that the majority of gossip was neutral, therefore not malicious.
So the question remains, is sneakiness just an unconscious pursuit of personal well-being? It could well be. And for good reason, as a study published in 2019 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology explains. , chatting would allow the release of endorphins, the "hormones of happiness", those which are released in particular thanks to sex and the practice of sport.
But then…why does speaking in the ear of someone, of another person do us any good? Because gossip creates social ties.
The floor now to Mark Leary, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University in the United States who spoke on the subject to the site Health :“Gossiping is a basic human instinct, because our lives are deeply rooted in groups. We not only live in groups, but we also depend on the members of these groups to survive. We need to have as much information as possible about our loved ones to know how the people around us are, who to trust or not, who breaks the rules of the group, who is friends with whom, what their personalities and points of view are”.
In other words, gossip has a positive social dimension if, of course, it is used in moderation. Enough to give even more flavor to our aperitifs with friends.
