Gossip Is Good

I have written about gossip before, and you can see that post here.  But even though it’s more than a year old, I really love this article from The Atlantic – titled “Gossip is Good” – for any of a number of reasons, including these:

 

1.  The title, providing alliteration on the letter “G.” It also posits a counter-intuitive conclusion from the usual. Gossip is bad? Think again!
2.  It doesn’t take long to read.  Plus, it’s easy to understand. In fact, the number of paragraphs (6) is less than the number of footnotes (9).
3. Wait, what?  Did I mention, it has footnotes? Hey, don’t let that scare you off. Footnotes are good too. Honest.
4.  It quotes everybody from Blaise Pascal to Ann Landers, not to mention The Talmud. I mean, c’mon: THE TALMUD!? Yes, you heard me: The Talmud.
5.  It’s got great science references. Plus, there’s even a tongue-in-cheek formula, called The Law of Inverse Accuracy:  C = (TI)^v – t

 

The likelihood of gossip being circulated (C) equals its timeliness (T) times its interest (I) to the power of its un-verifiability (v) minus the reluctance someone might feel about repeating it out of taste (t).

 

Last, but certainly not least, there’s the matter of primate social grooming. “Whaaaaat?” I hear you say?  That’s right: Primate. Social. Grooming.  If you wanna find out what that’s got to do with gossip, read the article!  And remember: Gossip is good.  Oh, and also…. <wait for it>… you heard it here first.