Department of Psychology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2012 May;102(5):1015-30. doi: 10.1037/a0026650. Epub 2012 Jan 9.
Reputation systems promote cooperation and deter antisocial behavior in groups. Little is known, however, about how and why people share reputational information. Here, we seek to establish the existence and dynamics of prosocial gossip, the sharing of negative evaluative information about a target in a way that protects others from antisocial or exploitative behavior. We present a model of prosocial gossip and the results of 4 studies testing the model's claims. Results of Studies 1 through 3 demonstrate that (a) individuals who observe an antisocial act experience negative affect and are compelled to share information about the antisocial actor with a potentially vulnerable person, (b) sharing such information reduces negative affect created by observing the antisocial behavior, and (c) individuals possessing more prosocial orientations are the most motivated to engage in such gossip, even at a personal cost, and exhibit the greatest reduction in negative affect as a result. Study 4 demonstrates that prosocial gossip can effectively deter selfishness and promote cooperation. Taken together these results highlight the roles of prosocial motivations and negative affective reactions to injustice in maintaining reputational information sharing in groups. We conclude by discussing implications for reputational theories of the maintenance of cooperation in human groups.
声誉系统促进合作，防止群体中的反社会行为。然而，人们对人们如何以及为什么分享声誉信息知之甚少。在这里，我们试图确定亲社会八卦的存在和动态，即通过一种保护他人免受反社会或剥削行为的方式分享关于目标的负面评价信息。我们提出了一个亲社会八卦的模型，并通过 4 项研究来检验该模型的主张。研究 1 至 3 的结果表明：(a) 观察到反社会行为的个体体验到负面情绪，并被迫与潜在易受伤害的人分享有关反社会行为者的信息；(b) 分享此类信息会减少观察到反社会行为所产生的负面情绪；(c) 具有更多亲社会倾向的个体最有动力参与此类八卦，即使付出个人代价，也会因此产生最大的负面情绪缓解。研究 4 表明，亲社会八卦可以有效地阻止自私自利，促进合作。总之，这些结果强调了亲社会动机和对不公正的负面情感反应在维护群体中声誉信息共享方面的作用。我们最后讨论了这些结果对人类群体合作维持的声誉理论的意义。
