Sunny Health

The more you know, the more knowledgeable you are, but the heavier your burden becomes too. It’s like looking at a plate piled with food from a buffet table and wishing you had someone to share it with. Good news or bad news, useful information or pointless musings, it is human nature to want to get it off our chests. That is why people talk, blog, write, tweet, post on forums and websites.

But when you have nothing to share about yourself, what do you do? You talk about other people and other occurrences around you of course. But this sounds like gossip, something that is often regarded in the negative light, And unhappily, we hold back our words, afraid of being labelled a gossip monger.

However, gossip is actually a healthy social activity that relieves frustration and stress, medically proven by scientists of the University of California, Berkeley, who were studying the effects of prosocial gossip.

The keyword here is ‘prosocial’, describing a form of gossip that protects others from harm or exploitation by spreading the word about someone else’s bad behaviour. For example, if you know of a promiscuous acquaintance who really gets around, telling people around you about him/her does not make you a backstabber; you keep be saving someone from an unsauvoury relationship and or even a risk of getting sexual diseases. Of course, if your information are hearsay, do not be so quick to fan the flames as you could risk facing a lawsuit for slander.

When you share your concerns and worries with others, you feel less irritated and more relieved because you are sharing your burden with others. I mean, notice how happy those girls look, gossiping in the picture above? In the meantime, sharing your opinions and criticisms about others helps you to communicate your own values, and build alliances or even strengthen friendships with the people who share your viewpoint.

Gossip is not always criticism, it is also about passing on information, for example, when you tell someone, “So-and-so is getting married next month!” or “Did you know that shop is holding a lucky draw event tomorrow?” In fact, the above mentioned study also states that people who are prone to gossiping also tend to act generously towards others. After all, telling people what you know is a form of caring and sharing!