Listen Live at 7PM PST/10PM ET On RadioJavan Click Here

Download the MP3: (High Quality)
That’s right, Iranian women are not alone, and men who gossip outnumber their female counterparts 2 to 1, says a recent study on gossip. Girls, don’t get excited yet, this study didn’t sample Iranian girls and doesn’t necessarily indicate that the girls who do gossip don’t do it more often and for a longer time than guys which can even the scale of “Net gossiping”. Sorry for the author bias; just bare with me.DailyNews Article

“Sneaking, lying and cheating among friends or acquaintances make for the most savory material, of course, and most people pass on their best nuggets to at least two other people, surveys find.” NYTimes

The article sites an example that’s similar to a situation where your friend is interested in a guy/girl whom you know or have heard things about that your friend would not approve of in the person they want to pursue. Dr. Wilson, a professor of biology and anthropology at the State University of New York says “We’re told we’re not supposed to gossip, that our reputation plummets, but in this context there may be an expectation that you should gossip: you’re obligated to tell, like an informal version of the honor code at military academies,”

“We all know people who are not calibrated to the social world at all, who if they participated in gossip sessions would learn a whole lot of stuff they need to know and can’t learn anywhere else, like how reliable people are, how trustworthy,” said Sarah Wert, a psychologist at Yale. “Not participating in gossip at some level can be unhealthy, and abnormal.”

The title of the NY Times article is “Have You Heard? Gossip Turns Out to Serve a Purpose,” definitely articulated and written to get the attention and the great self-approval feeling of the masses.A lot can be learned from gossip, but what exactly are these “to be learned” lessons?

In the case of some University Students asked, “Infidelity will eventually catch up with you,” “Cheerful people are not necessarily happy people” and “Just because someone says they have pictures of something doesn’t mean they do.”

For those who want to add “Feeling better after venting” as a benefit to gossip, I’m here to inform you that psychologically, “Venting doesn’t work even among those who believe in the value of venting. In fact it has the opposite effect, it increases aggression.” Handbook of Psychology Finally, if you thought it was a good way to strengthen a relationship with a friend, “Gossiping can be a surrogate for connecting and for creating real relationships,” Dr. David Eigen, a psychologist from the first article says, “When people gossip, they tend to create phony relationships rather than sharing real issues.”

To leave you with something positive, study by the British Psychological Society shows that after saying good things about a person, positive emotions were raised three percent, while self-esteem rose by five percent. CBS

Clip of the week:

Leave us a voicemail, Call 1-888-RD-JAVAN Ex 724
e-mail us iranicanlive@radiojavan.com
or post your comments here