Hales Andrew H, Yucel Meltem, Rudert Selma C
University of Mississippi.
Duke University.
Self Identity. 2025;24(3):253-279. doi: 10.1080/15298868.2025.2467737. Epub 2025 Feb 28.
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.
人们常常认为，如果可以选择，人们会宁愿不被人八卦。我们从八卦潜在目标的角度研究对八卦的反应，以此来探讨这一假设。在两个具有全国代表性的样本中，我们评估人们是否曾对成为他人八卦的话题持开放态度，结果发现，人们普遍反感被谈论，除非是正面的谈论。然而，有些人确实更愿意成为八卦的焦点：一项元分析综述表明，男性以及自恋程度更高的人更渴望成为八卦的焦点，即使那是负面八卦。而且，老年人对被正面八卦的渴望较低。我们还在验证性实验中测试人们是否能正确感知他人的偏好，结果发现，人们高估了他人想要被八卦的程度，但仅限于正面八卦的情况。
