Men gossip as much as women do and now science proves it too

If your boyfriend or husband calls you a gossipmonger or jokes about how much you love to engage in tittle-tattle, this story is going to help you come up with a witty and logical reply. A recent study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science has busted the common assumption that only women engage in gossip and says men equally love to do it as well.

The researchers at the University of California tried tracking the daily conversations of 467 participants (269 women and 198 men) by making them wear portable recording devices called Electronically Activated Recorders (EARs). These participants belonged to the age group of 18-58 years and this device helped to track around 12 per cent of their daily conversations.

The researchers defined gossip as a conversation about someone who is not present and came up with 4003 instances of gossip after listening to the recorded conversations.

The gossip in these recordings was divided into positive, negative and neutral category. Next, the researchers kept a track on whether the gossip was about a celebrity or acquaintance. They also took into consideration the gender of the person who was gossiping.

The study concluded that men gossip as much as women do and a person gossips for around 52 minutes in a day.

Younger people tend to engage in negative gossip more than older people, and extroverts gossip more frequently than introverts.

After analysing all recorded gossips, the researchers concluded that about three-fourths of all the gossips were neutral. However, the number of negative gossips (604 instances) was almost twice more than the positive ones (376). Interestingly, the topics of gossips were majorly about the acquaintances and not celebrities.

Contrary to what is believed, the research suggested that poor and less educated people gossip lesser than wealthier, better-educated people. The study stated, “Gossip is ubiquitous.”

(All images used here are representational)