Journal
HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE
Volume 16, Issue 3, Pages 278-292Publisher
ALDINE/TRANSACTION PUBLISHER
DOI: 10.1007/s12110-005-1011-6
Keywords
gossip; multilevel selection theory; organizational behavior; organizational levels; social control
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Gossip is a subject that has been studied by researchers from an array of disciplines with various foci and methods. We measured the content of language use by members of a competitive sports team across 18 months, integrating qualitative ethnographic methods with quantitative sampling and analysis. We hypothesized that the use of gossip will vary significantly depending on whether it is used for self-serving or group-serving purposes. Our results support a model of gossip derived from multilevel selection theory that expects gossip to serve group-beneficial rules when rewards are partitioned at the group level on a scale that permits mutual monitoring. We integrate our case study with earlier studies of gossip conducted by anthropologists, psychologists, and management researchers.
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