Gossip is an important tool [that] allows us to negotiate the complicated and treacherous shoals of social subtext. Keeping abreast of our contemporaries and maneuvering for advantage without being seen to do so requires an intricate dance. Though we may scorn it in public, most of us secretly crave it, and one recent study suggests that it may actually be good for us. In a paper published last month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, UC Berkeley researchers found that when subjects witnessed a person engaged in dishonest behavior, their stress levels shot up—but they calmed down considerably when they were able to pass the information along to others who were at risk of falling victim.
Why Facebook is Failing | Jeff Wise
