Aug
16
2005

social utility

The New York Times reports today about a recent book about group behavior which posits that gossip serves important social functions. (“Have You Heard? Gossip Turns Out to Serve a Purpose” - 08/16/05)

When two or more people huddle to share inside information about another person who is absent, they are often spreading important news, and enacting a mutually protective ritual that may have evolved from early grooming behaviors, some biologists argue…

This grapevine branches out through almost every social group and it functions, in part, to keep people from straying too far outside the group’s rules, written and unwritten, social scientists find.

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Posted at 4:17 PM in culture

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