7-3-i-search-avery

= The World of Gossip = by Avery media type="custom" key="856255" Everyday, a new rumor is spread. I see it, as does everybody else. People talk about other people, whether they love them or hate them. Everybody does it, and everybody is hurt by it. It is nearly impossible not to get caught up in the world of gossip. We talk about people, and people talk about us. Sometimes it is true. Sometimes it is not. People are hurt by gossip. If we all know of the consequences to this pastime, then why do we do it?

Recently, I was talking to an old friend when I became interested in this. Everybody at her school says she likes this guy, and they all talk about it, even to me. Even he thinks that she likes him. Unfortunately, she does not like him as anything more than a friend. Now her friendship with the guy is ruined, and she feels as though she can't trust her friends. They guy who she does like is disappointed. She is one of the many people who have been hurt by gossip.

The thing about doing an I-search on the psychology of gossip is that just about everybody has something to say on this subject, making finding somebody to interview extremely easy. I decided it was best not to interview somebody at my school, since they might be telling me something that they would not want any of the people involved to know about. I called an old friend whom I chose because it was she that inspired me to research this, and we chatted over pizza. She requested that she may remain anonymous.

Like so many seventh graders, she has been hurt by gossip. She tries to avoid the world of gossip, though we all know that doing so is quite impossible. Like many others, she avoids spreading gossip, and defends her friends when they are accused of something she knows is not true. She defends her friends, and tries to put a stop to the spread of false rumors. Unfortunately, this is not at all possible. One rumor may be proved wrong, but soon enough another will be spread, a process which hurts countless people. (Anonymous)

This is one person's view of gossip, but I decided that this wasn't enough. I found a book of my mom's called "Know Yourself," which to my surprise proved to be quite helpful. It talked about how, from a young age, we learn to compare ourselves to others. Gossip is one example of this. We watch other people, find out things about them, sometimes even befriend them. Then they tell us that juicy secret, and we start spreading rumors about them, whether they be the truth or not, about our observations. (Rose)

I also looked to online resources to find out more about the psychology of gossip. The information this produced was much more in depth than what I had found so far. //Psychology Today// had an article called "The New Word on GOSSIP" by Nigel Nicholson. From this I learned a lot about social status, and how we use compare our talents to those of others. The media also plays a large part in this, such as spreading gossip about celebrities, giving us something to discuss in our everyday lives. When something positive happens to us, we try to impress others who may be able to help us. When we do not know about a certain piece of gossip, we feel left out. Although gossip can strengthen bonds within a community, sometimes it becomes a covert contest between winners and losers. This article gave me a whole new prospective on the world of gossip. (Nicholson)

The second website that I found said many of the same things, though it also included much on scientific fact relating to gossip. "Rumor and Gossip Research" even provided information on "the basic law of rumor." It said that the strength of a rumor is equal to the "individual concerned" times the ambiguity of the evidence pertaining to the topic at hand." Before reading this, I had no idea that gossip could be represented by mathematics. I found this article particularly interesting, for it provided a scientific aspect of the psychology of gossip. (Rosnow & Foster)

I have learned a lot about gossip. Gossip is way more than a pastime. It is one of the many ways we compare ourselves to others. Gossip has, in some cases, become a contest, whereas in other cases gossip can help to bring a community together. Gossip can be evaluated on more than just a social level. There are also scientific ways to evaluate gossip. There is way more to this topic than I could have ever imagined. Perhaps now, when a friend tells me about their problems with gossip, or if I have some of my own, I will be able to look at the situation in a whole new way, and have a better understanding of why somebody is doing what they are doing.

**Works Cited**

 * Nicholson, Nigel. "Psychology Today: the New Word on GOSSIP." __Psychology Today__. May-June 2001. 24 Mar. 2008 
 * Rose, Barbara. Know Yourself. Florida, USA: The Rose Group, 2006. 31-53.
 * Rosnow, Ralph L., and Eric K. Foster. "Rumor and Gossip Research." Psychological Science Agenda. 4 Apr. 2005. APA Online. 10 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.apa.org/science/psa/apr05gossip.html>.]
 * Anonymous. Personal interview. 10 Apr. 2008.