Friendship enriched by bad gossip about others

According to newly released research sharing negative attitudes about others may have positive consequences because it promotes closeness and friendship.

It seems there is possibly after all good in bad gossip.

Jennifer K. Bosson a professor in the department of Psychology at The University of Oklahoma, says their study found that negative attitudes are frequently shared among friends and can even promote friendships among strangers.

The researchers say that though gossip has it drawbacks, the positive side of gossip, they believe is that the shared, mild, negative attitudes directed toward others can create and/or amplify interpersonal intimacy.

For the two part study, two groups of participants were instructed to list the positive and negative attitudes they shared at the early and later stages of close relationships.

In studies 1 and 2, participants' open-ended responses revealed a tendency to recall sharing with their closest friends more negative than positive attitudes about other people.

Study 3 then established that discovering a shared negative attitude about a target person predicted liking for a stranger more strongly than discovering a shared positive attitude.

The groups both recalled more negative than positive attitudes about other people.

The researchers say that presumably, sharing negative attitudes is attractive because it establishes in-group/out-group boundaries, boosts self-esteem, and conveys highly diagnostic information about attitude holders.

Despite the apparent ubiquity of this effect, say the team, participants seemed unaware of it.

Instead, they asserted that sharing positive attitudes about others would be particularly effective in promoting closeness.

The research is published in the current issue of Personal Relationships.