Is gossip good or bad? Children’s evaluations of positive and negative gossip and their relationship to the sharer and target

Caivano, O (Oksana)¹, Talwar, V (Victoria)^2
1McGill University, Montreal
²McGill University

 

Submission type

Oral only

Scheduled

Room 118, 10-07-2019, 09:00 - 10:30

Keywords

children, adolescents, gossip, valence, relationships, friendship

Summary

Gossip is a common social activity that children admittedly engage in. Although children disapprove of negative gossip, less is known about positive gossip. Interestingly, misbehaviours are evaluated differently depending on who commits the act and whom it targets. This study examined children’s moral evaluations of individuals sharing negative or positive gossip and how this changes depending on their relationship to the sharer and target. Children (N=134, ages 8-16) completed vignettes and morally evaluated the sharers’ actions, as the listener, a 2 (valence: negative/positive) x 4 (relationship type: friend/classmate of sharer and target) design. Additionally, the gossip topic was a behaviour with consequences for the self or another (vignette type: individual/relational), as a between-subjects variable, along with gender and age. A five-way repeated measures  ANOVA showed a three-way interaction between valence, relationship type, and vignette type, F(3, 126)=6.665, p< .001, ηp2=.050, revealing that for individual vignettes, positive gossip in the sharer-friend, target-friend condition was rated more negatively compared to the sharer-classmate, target-friend condition. Negative gossip in the sharer-classmate, target-friend condition was rated more negatively than all other relationships. Developmental and gender differences will be discussed. This research will help us understand when gossip is viewed as acceptable or unacceptable in schools.

Auteurs