gossip

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Gossip women and the devil (woodcut by Hans Weiditz early 16th century)
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Unfortunately, it does not show the connections between gossip on the one hand and bullying on the other. Gossip is not only an evidence of the communicative competence of the gossiping person, but also causes social damage and contributes to the exclusion of people.
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Gossip is a form of social entertainment that intentionally exchanges information about people who are not present. The term means a social conversation about trivial , often rumored topics. In addition, gossip also expressly stands for the unprovable , up to and including intentionally wrong . This distinguishes it from gossip, which is rather aimless chatting and telling. (Hence the distinctive “and” in the expression “Klatsch und Gossip”.) The English term gossip is now also used in German, often in connection with international celebrities and more with a friendly, harmless connotation.

In many cultures, gossip is considered immoral . According to Jewish law, for example, a distinction is made between the honor crimes rechilut ( Hebrew for "gossip"), Lashon hara (Hebrew לשון הרע for " defamation ") and motzi shem ra (Hebrew for " insult ", " slander "), in ascending order Heaviness. So God punishes Miriam with leprosy for a week when she is guilty of an honor offense against her brother Moses by degrading him and his Cushitic wife.

Gossip and the Origin of Human Language

Gossip and gossip communication serves to cultivate community: the majority of a person's daily conversation is about interpersonal issues of real or supposed group members, so it is "gossip". This is as true today as it used to be, explains the English primate researcher and psychologist Robin Dunbar , professor at the University of Liverpool , in his main work Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language .

At the beginning of the evolution of human language, the use of the ability to speak was communication in larger hordes of primitive man. Dunbar assumes that speech sounds initially had the same function as grooming in smaller hordes: gossip is the glue that holds the community together. Many primate researchers believe that only a large “social” brain enables coexistence in large groups. Only the development of language, according to Dunbar, made it possible to ensure social cohesion in groups of 150 people: “It allows us to interact with a number of individuals at the same time and exchange information about the state of our social network.” Explicit Gossip communication revolves around the question of what is "normal" and permitted and what is perhaps disreputable. When observations and opinions about the behavior of third parties are exchanged, social norms are negotiated. Real secrets are the culmination of gossip communication, not the norm.

research

Social science approaches

The anthropology and sociology , particularly social psychology, dealing with the topic of gossip, its forms of communication, its social function and its social reception. In the vicinity of or under the influence of the Manchester School , its founder Max Gluckman as well as J. Clyde Mitchell and Jörg Bergmann u. a. thoroughly analyzed the gossip.

Social control through gossip

The gossip itself and the fear of gossip form the basis of social control within a community. The social control is usually two-way, since normally everyone is equally afraid of gossip, even if some do not admit it to themselves. If norms and values ​​of a community are violated, this makes gossip easier; but he can also create and pass on inaccurate rumors . Gossip is thus also a means of intrigue , that is to say, for the settlement of hostilities and rivalries, without those who clap from behind (hence the outdated term "after speech" ) are confronted with the person concerned. Thus, gossip also serves to (mostly only apparent or temporary) leveling of power and status differences.

Historic joke postcard with an "honorary diploma" from the "Klatschbasen-Bund", around 1900

Gossip is socially considered a vice. Many religious communities have rules that prohibit gossip. Nonetheless, gossip serves as social glue and has been found in the context of oral storytelling in every culture. Simpler forms of gossip in dense social networks primarily correspond to the need to have a say and to exchange news (about acquaintances and the local community) ("village gossip", "coastal gossip").

Gossip about celebrities is the area of ​​the gossip press (tabloids, yellow press, rainbow press ) or the gossip columns of certain newspapers. This "gossip industry" plays a significant global role today. The social function behind the apparently enormous need to find out details about the leading social figures, including private to intimate ones, is a very complex phenomenon and is not yet fully understood. Studies of the social structure of the great apes suggest that insight into the tensions in the leadership hierarchy is of great importance for each group member - and the group as a whole - and is precisely recorded.

High demands on gossip

Since the explained functions and the interplay in gossip are very complex, according to sociological view, gossip requires a certain communicative competence of the person speaking. Jörg Bergmann even goes so far that he speaks of an art of revelation about third parties. This explains how secrets can remain “secrets” within a community, even if everyone knows about them. Because gossip reveals directly and in the unofficial, in contrast to scandals , the secrets of public opinion as a tribunal .

Evolutionary psychology

In evolutionary psychology , gossip is viewed on the one hand as an adaptation that made it possible for people to disseminate information about others and to "keep an eye on" the behavior of fellow human beings even in a large social network: gossip can collaborate within a group by passing on information effectively promote via non-cooperative individuals. However, this has been criticized as an overly androcentric assumption that does not explain differences in behavior between men and women. On the other hand, gossip can also be used as a covert aggressive tactic with low fitness costs in order to compete with others for valuable resources. For example, women prefer indirect aggression, using tactics such as gossip and social exclusion, to tackle rivals, compared to men who use more direct forms of aggression (e.g., physical aggression). For this reason, it was argued that heterosexual women gossip as the main weapon of choice for intra-sexual competition use to outdo rivals, damaging their reputation and make it less desirable as partners for men. This includes attacking the physical attractiveness and sexual reputation of other women, which reflects the evolutionarily evolved mating preferences of men.

Legal

Germany

As soon as the gossip reaches such an extent that facts are asserted or disseminated which serve to make a person contemptible or belittled in public opinion, but this is not proven to be true, the act of defamation is reached. This can easily happen with gossip.

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: gossip  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: clap  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ What is the Jewish view on gossip? ; Speech and Lashon Ha-Ra
  2. ↑ Miriam and Aaron's rebellion
  3. ^ Adam Davis, Tracy Vaillancourt, Steven Arnocky, Robert Doyel: Women's Gossip as an Intrasexual Competition Strategy: An Evolutionary Approach to Sex and Discrimination . In: The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation . Oxford University Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-19-049408-7 , pp. 302–321 , doi : 10.1093 / oxfordhb / 9780190494087.013.16 ( oxfordhandbooks.com [accessed June 28, 2019]).