In a 2019 study published in a journal named Social Psychological and Personality Science, 467 adults were asked to wear electronic devices on their bodies that recorded their verbal conversations over the course of several days. The researchers listened to the recorded audio files and hunted for conversations or anything that could be identified as gossip. The results were very interesting. Practically everyone engaged in some form of gossip. Only 34 individuals showed no evidence of gossip at all. Seventy-five percent of the gossip were classified as neutral gossip. In other words, the content they shared in their gossip log were not exactly hurtful to anyone. But they were not content that built anyone up either. Women participated in more neutral gossip than men. What I found most interesting was both men and women equally engaged in negative and positive gossip, with negative gossip slightly exceeding positive gossip.
What is gossip? How would you define it? Would you call yourself a gossip? If I am right, most of us would not call ourselves a gossip. No one in here would say we spread rumors about someone else. Even less would admit we do it with malicious intentions. But according to social scientists, gossip is any talk about someone who isn’t present. If this is how we define gossip, then gossip is no longer the same as scoops on tabloid television, or traditional tabloid journalism. If gossip is any conversation about someone who isn’t around, now are we a gossip?
What about the Bible? What I meant to ask is how does the Bible define gossip? Would the Bible, specifically the Book of Proverbs, say you and I are gossips? What does God have to say about gossip? Join us, and let’s think together about gossip. More importantly, let’s hear what God has to say about it in the Book of Proverbs, and change. See you Sunday!
Your Friend,
Alvin