Today’s guest speaker is our own member, Archie Bower, who holds a Ph.D in educational psychology from the University of Alberta, Canada (1969). He also attended Mount Allison University and Dalhousie University. For 26 years he was employed as a psychologist in the province of Ontario where he worked in a centre for developmental disabilities. Archie spent several years in Nova Scotia and as a researcher in Alberta. He also taught for a few semesters in In 2006 retired here in North Bali and became a charter member our club

He has been away from psychology for a while, and when he began researching for this talk, he was struck a change in the last 15 years – now much greater importance is place on gossip and rumour. One relevant paper quoted here is by Robin Dunbar (2004) with the title Gossip in Evolutionary Perspective. You can view the complete paper (11 pages) at http://attach.matita.net/ziorufus/Dunbar%20gossip.pdf

Rumour has been distinguished from gossip in the past as having a more political connotation. Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others. It forms one of the oldest and most common means of sharing (unproven) facts and views, but also has a reputation for the introduction of errors and other variations into the information transmitted. Perhaps 400 years ago, it meant simply the activity that one engaged in with one’s “godsibs,” one’s peer group equivalent of godparents.

Dunbar summarizes the current reputation of gossip as: to engage in gossip is to speak ill of one’s fellows, to interfere with the smooth running of the social relationships within which we are all embedded: in a word, to undermine the very fabric of society.

I will take issue with the common view of gossip as “ wasteful talk.”   As evolutionary psychologists say,   Without gossip, there would be no society. In short, gossip is what makes human society as we know it possible.

Dunbar takes an evolutionary approach to the subject of gossip in his 2004 and argues that social grooming in primates is critical for developing trust and alliances for group survival. But time constraints on grooming limits group size to about 80 members.

Dunbar argues that   primate groups needed some way to maintain social cohesiveness as they grew larger.

This problem was solved by the development of language. Of course, one of the salient features of humans ( with their enlarged neocortex) but our closest relative , the Chimp, has great signing ability.

Language evolves

So language gradually evolves as a means of bonding in social groups. Information can thus be exchanged in spoken and written form. Initially it was believed that language was for scientific and religious discussion.

Speech enables us to maintain social networks. Dunbar and others have found that 65% of our speech is about friends and relationships.

Gossip is talk, but not always idle or involved in spreading rumours, as we often assume..

Uses of gossip

• 
  Share information about changes in lives in our network of friends.
• Seek advice from our friends.
• Advertize ourselves as in networking for business or social purposes.
• To deceive others (start false stories) as in Shakespeare’s Orthello.
• To deal with free riders in our social network…(also known as the problem of the commons) These are people who put their personal good above the welfare of the group….

Dunbar and associates have found that about 20% of our time is spent in social activity, chiefly verbal communication. This seems consistent across cultures. In medieval Europe the management of reputation was important, as it is today with politicians and ..

Problem of the free rider

One reason why gossip has acquired its negative connotations is that conversation is sometimes

genuinely used to comment on the behavior of, or cast aspersions on the character of, those of whom we disapprove. One reason why we might have a predisposition to behave in this way is that free riders are extremely destructive for societies based on a social compact.

Negative Gossip and the Free Rider

The control of free riders is largely dependent on memory of past events (occasions where they have cheated us or reneged on implicit contracts) and an appreciation of how they might afflict others. Only when we advise potential victims of the danger they face are we exercising any kind of social censure. Language is clearly central to that process.

Harmful Gossip

Negative gossip about third parties, who of course have no opportunity to defend themselves, is a dangerous game that can rebound on the gossiper. To be good at malicious gossip requires a high degree of subtlety and skill. The trick is to appear to be sympathetic to the victim while holding him below the waterline with implicit denigration.

Most people find this distasteful. Much malicious gossip is conducted unconsciously, an act that requires self-deception. But humans are especially adept at it; it helps us to maintain consistent social performance, according to Robert Trivers, Ph.D., one of the originators of evolutionary psychology. In the world of gossip, self-deception often takes the form of genuinely believing one is on the high moral ground of charitable sympathy, looking down on one's slowly sinking victim.

(from Psychology Today)

A Few Ways Rumors Hurt People

• Cause us to waste time and energy
• Increase anxiety in a community
• Create camps/ divides organizations
• Reduces trust and confidence
• Destroys relationships, careers and reputations

Top Reasons Given For Spreading Gossip

• To feel superior—low in self-esteem
• To be part of the group
• To get attention
• For control or power—reduce the status of another
• Jealousy or for revenge
• Boredom

A Few Ways To Deal With Gossip About Yourself

• Try to understand where it is coming from and why.
• Get someone who supports you to stand up for you. Sort of a buddy method.
• Don’t get visibly upset. (likely the person starting the rumor is insecure or unhappy)
• Resist the desire for revenge
• Reduce the chances of it starting again

Lovina, Bali: Is Gossip Different Here?

• Daily grooming behaviour observed, e .g., de-lousing
• Likely 20% of the day is spent in social interaction ( Top interests: ceremony, family relationships, who, what, when, di mana.)
• Putting down Java folks..not as honest, reliable as locals
• A great interest in celebrity gossip on TV

Celebrity Gossip: Why the fascination?

• Life is boring..to build us up we want to associate with the ‘stars’.
• Knowing the details of their lives brings them closer.
• Dark Side of TV Gossip Shows in Indonesia

Consuming Gossip – a Re-domestication of Women

Women's movement—from its rebirth in 1960—has singled out that advertising is one of society's most disturbing mass cultural product (van Zoonen; 1994) and in the following years, the popularity of soap operas has become another serious one. (Scodari: 2003). In the case of Indonesia, celebrity news shows, popularly known as 'infotainment', have shifted advertisements and also soap operas to become the most influential and disturbing media product.

Indonesia and Gossip Shows

• Currently, there are more than 30 separate infotainment programs on all thirteen privately owned TV stations in Indonesia. In SCTV for instance, it even has seven different gossip shows and are spread through the day from Monday to Sunday providing hot gossip on any Indonesian public figure.
• What matters, however is not the success of those television products but the impact of their show as culture and values also come into play. Issues surrounding the nature of these gossip shows become a serious challenge to the ideology of feminism. Simply said, the celebrity gossip shows phenomena have constituted a new kind of return of domestication of women. (Vissia Ita Yulianto)

A Few References

Evolutionary Psychology

The New Word on Gossip by Nigel Nicholson, Psychology Today, May 01, 2001

The Science of Gossip: Why We Can't Stop Ourselves by Frank T. McAndrew , Scientific American, October 1, 2008 | 4

Evolutionary Perspective By R. I. M. Dunbar, Economic and Social Science Research Council Research Centre in Economic Learning and Social Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Liverpool, England.

Review of General Psychology 2004, Vol. 8, No. 2, 100–110

Consuming Gossip: A Re-Domestication of Women By Vissia Ita Yulianto INSPICIO,

She is the writer of Pesona "Barat" di Indonesia. This article is part of her paper presented in SEASREP 10^th Anniversary Conference, Chiangmay. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it