ArticleHuman nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)2021
Being in the Know : Social Network Analysis of Gossip and Friendship on a College Campus.
Article in Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Early insight into social network structure predicts climbing the social ladder.Science advances · 2025Article
- Openness to Being Gossiped About: Understanding Gossip from the Target's Perspective.Self and identity : the journal of the International Society for Self and Identity · 2025Article
- Gossiping for a reason: Revised Gossip Functions Questionnaire.Psychological test adaptation and development : official open access organ of the European Association of Psychological Assessment · 2024Article
- Gossip, sabotage, and friendship network dataset.Data in brief · 2022Article
- Brokering or Sitting Between Two Chairs? A Group Perspective on Workplace Gossip.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Gossip (evaluative talk about others) is ubiquitous. Gossip allows important rules to be clarified and reinforced, and it allows individuals to keep track of their social networks while strengthening their bonds to the group. The purpose of this study is to decipher the nature of gossip and how it relates to friendship connections. To measure how gossip relates to friendship, participants from men's and women's collegiate competitive rowing (crew) teams (N = 44) noted their friendship connections and their tendencies to gossip about each of their teammates. Using social network analysis, we found that the crew members' friend group connectedness significantly correlated with their positive and negative gossip network involvement. Higher connectedness among friends was associated with less involvement in spreading negative gossip and/or being a target of negative gossip. More central connectedness to the friend group was associated with more involvement in spreading positive gossip and/or being a target of positive gossip. These results suggest that the spread of both positive and negative gossip may influence and be influenced by friendship connections in a social network.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.