Close Menu
Healthtost
  • News
  • Mental Health
  • Men’s Health
  • Women’s Health
  • Skin Care
  • Sexual Health
  • Pregnancy
  • Nutrition
  • Fitness
What's Hot

15 easy ways to get 20 grams of protein (Personal Trainer Guide)

June 29, 2025

Organ chip technology accurately predicts chemotherapy response to patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

June 29, 2025

How Barefoot Workout can make you stronger, more athletic and stunning in injuries

June 29, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Disclaimer
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Healthtost
SUBSCRIBE
  • News

    Organ chip technology accurately predicts chemotherapy response to patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

    June 29, 2025

    Expansion of genetic code to mammalian cells using pseuduridine -modified codons

    June 29, 2025

    Discover a Dimmer Genetic switch that controls fetal growth

    June 28, 2025

    Who Scientific Advisory Group for the origin of new pathogenic reports for Sars-Cov-2 Origins

    June 28, 2025

    Exploring nervous reactions to mental exhaustion in healthy adults

    June 27, 2025
  • Mental Health

    Which one is right for you? – Talkspace

    June 27, 2025

    Do alternative treatments for bipolar disorder work? Guide based on evidence (2025)

    June 26, 2025

    Data reveals both challenges and positive trends

    June 16, 2025

    How to choose the best yoga teacher training in Rishikesh

    June 14, 2025

    Stress is the most common mental health problem – here is how technology could help manage

    June 11, 2025
  • Men’s Health

    How Barefoot Workout can make you stronger, more athletic and stunning in injuries

    June 29, 2025

    How I turned the chatgpt to my personal nutrition coach and you can also

    June 29, 2025

    Total human care is here: Help men look and feel great now and forever

    June 28, 2025

    Why men ignore sleep apnea (and what they really cost them) – talking about men’s health

    June 28, 2025

    Lessons from a survivor for prostate cancer

    June 26, 2025
  • Women’s Health

    Books I have recently read – The Fitnessista

    June 29, 2025

    Does it support your aesthetic travel your body and mind? Guide

    June 28, 2025

    Eating for real immune support this winter

    June 27, 2025

    What does public health really mean

    June 27, 2025

    How long do you have to expand after MTF? A complete driver to expand – Vuvatech

    June 25, 2025
  • Skin Care

    Sunburn First Aid -7 common mistakes you will regret later

    June 29, 2025

    What is happening first? The step by step guide to build a routine of skin care

    June 28, 2025

    DIY Vitamin C Cucumber The Eye Serum

    June 27, 2025

    Tips for Summer skin care for your best skin

    June 26, 2025

    How a crisis of ingredients led to the best physical form of our deodorant stick

    June 24, 2025
  • Sexual Health

    Can Koles really get chlamydia?

    June 28, 2025

    Overward Visitor and Student Health Insurance in Australia for visa holders

    June 27, 2025

    Disassociation of the latest testosterone treatment lines

    June 27, 2025

    We always know that orgasms were good for you. Now there is proof.

    June 26, 2025

    Josh Duhamel gets testosterone replacement treatment at 52

    June 25, 2025
  • Pregnancy

    AI helps the couple capture after 19 years and 15 IVF attempts

    June 29, 2025

    7 signs your gut can be out of balance

    June 29, 2025

    Helping parents prepare for birth with calm and trust

    June 28, 2025

    Better screen limits for kids: Expert driver for parents

    June 28, 2025

    What is prenatal ability?

    June 27, 2025
  • Nutrition

    25 best vegan taco recipes that are healthy, easy and full of flavor

    June 29, 2025

    Episode 004: Trust your truth against all logic with Angela de la Agua

    June 28, 2025

    Benefits for the health of CoQ10 you should be aware

    June 27, 2025

    Creatine Completion in Menopause: What does science say?

    June 27, 2025

    GLP-1 Enhance the Smoothie recipes push for weight loss

    June 26, 2025
  • Fitness

    15 easy ways to get 20 grams of protein (Personal Trainer Guide)

    June 29, 2025

    Review of the Heat Index: an approach based on evidence

    June 28, 2025

    Bodybuilding Legend Charles Glass’ 5 Favorite Movements Hamstring

    June 27, 2025

    7 Best energy gels 2025, per runners and dieticians

    June 26, 2025

    Different types of training and fitness courses

    June 25, 2025
Healthtost
Home»News»How gossip became humanity’s oldest viral trend
News

How gossip became humanity’s oldest viral trend

healthtostBy healthtostFebruary 26, 2024No Comments6 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Email
How Gossip Became Humanity's Oldest Viral Trend
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest WhatsApp Email

In a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The researchers devised an evolutionary game-theoretic model and a series of agent-based tests to elucidate the evolution and persistence of gossip, arguably the most ubiquitous social human trait. Their study evaluates their hypothesis that the spread of reputation and the prevention of selfishness are the key features of the evolutionary stability of gossip, and then tests the causal pathways of this evolutionary cycle.

Their findings suggest that disseminating information about an absent third party can prompt individuals to adjust their behavior in response to others’ reputations. When combined with the tendency of individuals to behave cooperatively toward gossipers to enhance their reputation, gossip has and will continue to dominate human society for the foreseeable future.

Explaining the evolution of gossip. Image credit: Ollyy / Shutterstock

Gossip – the world’s most common mystery?

Gossip is the social dissemination of (often unconfirmed) information about an absent third party, usually conducted in an informal or unrestricted conversation. History reveals that gossip has been a fundamental feature of human civilization since ancient times, the earliest records of which can be found in Mesopotamia and ancient Greece. Science hypothesizes that gossip may be a common feature among hunter-gatherer societies, with equivalents traced to higher primate groups.

Research estimates that people today spend about an hour each day engaging in gossip. Surprisingly, studies have failed to elucidate significant group differences in the ubiquity of gossip, with all individuals, regardless of age, gender, social status, and personality types, engaging in the activity. However, just as amazing is that through thousands of years of gossip’s existence, we still don’t know where it came from, how it permeated every known human culture, and how it has remained one of the most widespread human pleasures to this day.

“Previous theories have tried to explain the origins of gossip in terms of its role in human survival, particularly in connecting large groups and maintaining cooperation. Gossip spreads information about people’s reputations and thereby enables people to choose to help other partners and avoid exploitation by selfish individuals – a mechanism widely studied as indirect reciprocity that supports cooperation. Beyond that, the possibility of being gossiped about also raises concerns about people’s reputations. As a result, people tend to behave more cooperatively under the threat of gossip.”

Although these hypotheses have their scientific merit, they focus on the benefits of gossip while failing to explain the evolution of gossip in the first place. Gossip is time- and energy-intensive and involves the exchange of knowledge, an essential resource in a resource-limited environment. Gossip should therefore be maladaptive and not occur in natural populations, with mutants quickly removed by natural selection. Moreover, these hypotheses emphasize the benefits to the gossip while downplaying the role and thoughtfulness of the benefits to the receiver – the information obtained from the gossip event must first guide and modify the recipient’s behavior before material benefits can be obtained.

The evolutionary cycle of gossip

The present study proposes the “gossip evolutionary cycle,” which hypothesizes that the interplay and positive feedback between reputation propagation and selfishness prevention allows gossip to become established as an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS). Using agent-based computer simulations, they then build a game-theoretic model incorporating two gossip functions to test this hypothesis. Once established, they use further simulations to test the pathways involved in this escalating causal relationship.

“…we argue that the reputation-diffusion function of gossip makes rumors more accessible and thereby leads more people to consider the reputations of others when interacting with them. As more people condition their behavior on the reputations of others, more people worry about their own reputations. This concern for reputation prompts them to manage their reputation by behaving more cooperatively when interacting with gossip.”

The model incorporates two decision strategies for each gossip player – “cooperate” and “gossip”. This decision tree then dictates the conditions and degree of cooperation of players under different scenarios and is based on six personality types, including unconditional collaborators (AC), unconditional defectors (AD, players who use reputation information to protect themselves (CC) and players who use reputational information to exploit others (CD) The latter two categories are sensitive to gossip and subject to the anti-ego function of the gossip feature.

The study’s reputation system represents its core innovation and dictates the process for players to develop belief systems about their counterparts. Their reputation system design allows players to infer each other’s conditional behavior and avoids additional confusion of higher-order moral judgments.

“With this setting, agents form hypotheses about each other’s underlying strategy, rather than simply rating each other as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ dichotomously or on a one-dimensional spectrum as in previous models.”

Study findings

Of the 5,000 simulations run, the vast majority (90%; N = 4,000) exhibited the evolution of gossip, all of which allowed the trait to prevail and eventually become established throughout the population, validating its robustness as an evolutionary strategy. Surprisingly, even when it was suboptimal or maladaptive, gossip still became established in populations unless its maladaptive costs were very high.

The findings of the study revealed that the exploitation (GC) strategy was the most adopted (57%) among the players. Despite this, the overall cooperation rates in the population remained high (78%). This is attributed to progressive increases in gossip density and reputation sensitivity across the population. Reputation propagation function analysis clarifies these results by revealing that gossip results in increased reputation accessibility, allowing players to make more accurate predictions about their neighbors’ strategies.

“…gossipers evolve under a wide range of parameter choices, although their proportions vary as a function of those parameters. In particular, more gossipers develop if people are in a social network where they have many stable connections, if they have deep interactions with those social connections, if they interact frequently, if they have conversations with each other frequently, if their beliefs are influenced by the gossip from moderate to severe, and if progression occurs slowly.’

conclusions

In the present study, the researchers develop a new hypothesis to explain the evolution and persistence of gossip and devise a game-theoretic model and agent-based tests to simulate the validity of the hypothesis. Their findings suggest that gossip evolves from the escalating positive feedback interaction of reputation propagation and ego aversion. Their simulations highlight the robustness of the trait and its persistence once the trait has emerged in a population.

Similar modeling frameworks applied to other aspects of human interaction may help elucidate the prevalence of behaviors that we consider routine but have profound implications for evolution and survival.

Journal Reference:

  • Pan, X., Hsiao, V., Nau, DS, & Gelfand, MJ (2024). Explaining the evolution of gossip. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(9), e2214160121, DOI – 10.1073/pnas.2214160121,
gossip humanitys oldest Trend viral
bhanuprakash.cg
healthtost
  • Website

Related Posts

Organ chip technology accurately predicts chemotherapy response to patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

June 29, 2025

Expansion of genetic code to mammalian cells using pseuduridine -modified codons

June 29, 2025

Discover a Dimmer Genetic switch that controls fetal growth

June 28, 2025

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Don't Miss
Fitness

15 easy ways to get 20 grams of protein (Personal Trainer Guide)

By healthtostJune 29, 20250

The acquisition of several proteins in your diet is vital to muscle repair, satiety and…

Organ chip technology accurately predicts chemotherapy response to patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

June 29, 2025

How Barefoot Workout can make you stronger, more athletic and stunning in injuries

June 29, 2025

Books I have recently read – The Fitnessista

June 29, 2025
Stay In Touch
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
TAGS
Baby benefits body brain cancer care Day Diet disease exercise finds Fitness food Guide health healthy heart Life Loss Men mental Natural Nutrition Patients Pregnancy protein research reveals Review risk routine sex sexual Skin study Therapy Tips Top Training Treatment Understanding ways weight women Workout
About Us
About Us

Welcome to HealthTost, your trusted source for breaking health news, expert insights, and wellness inspiration. At HealthTost, we are committed to delivering accurate, timely, and empowering information to help you make informed decisions about your health and well-being.

Latest Articles

15 easy ways to get 20 grams of protein (Personal Trainer Guide)

June 29, 2025

Organ chip technology accurately predicts chemotherapy response to patients with esophageal adenocarcinoma

June 29, 2025

How Barefoot Workout can make you stronger, more athletic and stunning in injuries

June 29, 2025
New Comments
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Disclaimer
    © 2025 HealthTost. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.