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. 2025;24(3):253-279.
doi: 10.1080/15298868.2025.2467737. Epub 2025 Feb 28.

Openness to Being Gossiped About: Understanding Gossip from the Target's Perspective

Andrew H Hales  1 , Meltem Yucel  2 , Selma C Rudert  3
Affiliations

Openness to Being Gossiped About: Understanding Gossip from the Target's Perspective

Andrew H Hales et al. Self Identity. 2025.

Abstract

It is often assumed that, if given the choice, people would prefer not to be gossiped about. We address this assumption by investigating reactions to gossip from the perspective of its potential targets. In two nationally representative samples, we assess whether people are ever open to being the topic of other people's gossip and find a general aversion to being talked about, unless positively. However, some people reliably do prefer to be the focus of gossip: A meta-analytic summary showed that being male, and more narcissistic predicted a greater desire to be the focus of gossip, even when that gossip is negative. And, older adults had lower desire to be positively gossiped about. We also test in confirmatory experiments whether people correctly perceive others' preferences, and find that people overestimate the extent to which others want to be gossiped about, but only when the gossip is positive.

Keywords: age; gender; gossip; narcissism; ostracism.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Openness to gossip by scenario and target in Study 4, N = 397. Bars represent mean response, and error bars represent standard errors of the mean.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Openness to gossip by (a) gender, (b) narcissism, and (c) chronic ostracism in Study 4, N = 397. Points represent individual’s responses to each scenario and are randomly jittered to display frequency of responses. Bars in Panel A display mean response for each group and error bars show standard errors of the mean.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Openness to gossip by scenario and target in Study 5, N = 234. Bars represent mean response, and error bars represent standard errors of the mean.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Openness to gossip by (a) gender, (b) narcissism, and (c) chronic ostracism in Study 5, N = 234. Points represent individual’s responses to each scenario and are randomly jittered to display frequency of responses. Bars in Panel A display mean response for each group and error bars show standard errors of the mean.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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