Science Proves That Gossiping Is Good For You

To anyone who’s ever felt too proud to gossip about someone, get your head out of the clouds. Join us. It’s actually good for you!!

Research is suggesting that venting about your feelings to others increases your health and happiness, and this includes gossiping.

Mark from Uproxx shares, “Broadly reports that the new data, out of the University of Pavia, shows that when we drop the pretenses and start speaking in earnest about others — and not even in a polite way — oxytocin levels start increasing, producing lots of nice feelings and making us feel closer to the person with whom we are sharing the most private details of our mutual friends’ failing marriage, recent unemployment, or stint in rehab-which-no-one-was-supposed-to-know-about-but-which-another-friend-told-you-and-it’s-not-like-you-can-just-keep-it-in, you know?”

Psychiatrist and author Dr. Natascia Brondino explained, “I noticed that every time my colleagues and I gossiped, we felt closer together. I started to wonder whether there was a biochemical cause for this feeling of closeness.” Dr. Brondino assembles 22 female university students, and split them into two groups. “The first group—prompted by an actress who steered the conversation—gossiped about a recent unplanned pregnancy on campus. The second, non-gossip group heard an actress tell an emotional personal story about how a sporting injury meant she might never be able to play sports again.”

Dr. Brondino discovered that the group who took part in the gossip experienced a significant increase in oxytocin, a hormone that’s been dubbed the ‘love hormone’ and the ‘bliss hormone’. Not only did that group feel better by the time they were done with the exercise, but they formed a stronger bond with their fellow group members!

Don’t say gossip never helped you!!