Adolescents and adults can consider perspectives to appreciate gossip's entertainment function

Abstract

Gossip is a common form of social communication that serves several functions, including sharing information, strengthening relationships, influencing behaviour, and providing entertainment (Foster, 2004). The current study examined how communicative perspective influenced adolescents’ and adults’ interpretations of these social functions. Participants (N = 119; 99 adults, 20 adolescents) viewed video-based social scenarios that varied in statement type (gossip vs. target-present) and communicative perspective (speaker vs. listener). After each video, participants rated the extent to which the statement served these social functions: sharing useful information, strengthening relationships, influencing the listener’s behaviour, and entertaining the listener. Participants then completed the Gossip Functions Questionnaire (GFQ; Foster, 2004). Results indicated that participants endorsed gossip’s social functions more strongly from the speaker’s perspective than from the listener’s perspective. Participants rated gossip statements as more relationship-strengthening than target-present statements. They also rated speaker-perspective statements as more useful and influential than listener-perspective statements. Entertainment emerged as the only social function that demonstrated convergence for both measures: participants rated statements as more entertaining from the speaker’s perspective than the listener’s perspective, and speaker-perspective entertainment ratings were positively associated with GFQ entertainment scores. These findings highlight the roles of perspective- taking and entertainment in the appreciation of gossip among adolescents and adults.