“I was not trying to hurt anyone.” Gossip is not always meant to harm. However, many people, take it a little too far and it can truly hurt another person. Gossip is going to occur everywhere including the workplace, school, mall, etc. Psychologists Antonius Cillessen, PhD, and Lara Mayeux, PhD, calculated a study of 905 students between the ages of ten to fourteen. They concluded that gossip is social aggression, which is trying to hurt others, like not allowing someone to join a group. The younger the child, the worse the gossip. Marion Underwood, a psychologist, states that gossip or social aggression “hurts the giver and taker.” She also states that children are affected more than adults. According to most psychologists, gossip has more negative effects than positive.
Elementary school teachers talk to their students about gossip. The technique they use is “Telephone.” Telephone is a game that one person comes up with a sentence, tells another, and goes around to other people. The game is to illustrate to people how something can change, just like gossip. One teacher told her students, “We are going to have a three day weekend starting tomorrow.” When the sentence came back around, it said, “We will be lucky if three of you aren't killed this weekend." Gossip has the same effect. It can just start off as an innocent statement about someone, but if misunderstood the message can completely change.
The American Psychological Association studied 380 students between the ages of five and eleven. The result was students in a group of close friends, who were gossiping, were venting and bonding. They had no intention of harming anyone. According to Doctor Underwood, gossip usually affects girls more than boys. Girls form poor self-concept, loneliness, depression, and anxiety. Antonius Cillessen, PhD, and Lara Mayeux, PhD, say that gossiping forms alliances between groups, especially in girls. Through years of studying, they have concluded that the popular fifth graders, the heavy gossipers, were liked by everyone; they were highly disliked by the ninth grades due to their gossiping ways.
Research shows gossip is painful, but it can also forms bonds. Gossip mostly occurs in middle school, between the grades of fourth through eighth. By high school, students start maturing and learn that negative gossip will leave them lonely and low on the social pyramid.
