When gossiping can make you live longer

Women gossip in one form or another.Gossiping is a bad habit that is usually discouraged. However, experts found that when women indulge in gossiping, it invariably makes them happier and healthier, because it reduces their levels of anxiety and stress, thus contributing to better health, reports Sade Oguntola.

We use a lot of different words to describe gossip. We chat, we hear it through the grapevine, listen to the word of mouth – sometimes, straight from the horse’s mouth. Actually, this idle chit-chat is so common that it has a very extensive and colourful vocabulary.

Very few people proudly admit to it, but we all gossip. Some of us even relish it. While some religions and cultures frown upon the practice more than others, gossip in one form or another happens all over the world, among people of all ages. A recent analysis of human conversation by experts showed that about 60 per cent of the content of gossip was about relationships and personal experiences.

Whenever there is something that we all do so often, we can, sometimes wonder if there is some basic human benefit to it. Does gossiping fulfill some need? Is it a survival skill? Is it good for us or bad for us to spread stories and speculations about others? Should we feel guilty if we indulge in celebrity gossip?

Although some people may argue that that the last thing people need is gossip, scientists have discovered that it is good for women’s health. Scientists at the University of Michigan claimed that gossiping by women could make them happier and healthier. They claimed that a woman would be happier and healthier if she enjoyed a regular chat with her female friend because this would boost the levels of progesterone, a hormone shown to reduce levels of anxiety and stress.

Progesterone is a hormone produced by the ovaries in women. Among other things, it prepares the womb for pregnancy, fights infection and stops the over-production of oestrogen, which could raise the risk of cancer.

The scientists who carried out the study said that progesterone plays an important part in social bonding and also makes women more willing to help other people in trouble, even if it means risking their own lives in the process. Many of the hormones involved in bonding and helping behaviour lead to reductions in stress and anxiety.

The authors of this study explained that women with higher levels of progesterone are apparently more satisfied by positive interpersonal relationships, and this motivation to bond is higher in women who take oral contraceptives (containing progestogens) than in women who don’t take oral contraceptives, or in men generally.

Professor Oye Gureje, a consultant psychiatrist at the University College Hospital,(UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, was of the opinion that saying outright that gossiping is good for women’s health was “ a very simplistic and non-scientific deduction’’ to make from a study.

“It is possible that those who express their views, who talk more, are more sociable, and that talking may actually be protective of their health. But I do not think that you can make an inference from that, linking it to the production of some hormones in the body and saying that gossiping by women could make them happier and healthier.’’

According to Prof. Gureje, there would certainly be some form of gossip that would be damaging to health. “If, for example, it is about nagging, about complaining and about being stressed up because of what people are doing about you and you are raking at them all the time, certainly you are not going to have good health, as opposed to someone gossiping about, say, celebrities like Michael Jackson or other singers they had read about in soft-sell magazines. Those are casual, sociable talks that you may expect would likely liven up an environment and make people feel a little bit better.”

Prof. Gureje added that if you gossip about what your boss is doing or your husband and you get stressed up by that or get paranoid about it, then you are not going to benefit from it. “Rather, you are going to be harmed by it. So, it depends on what is said and under what circumstances.”

Dr. Adekunle Akanbi, a senior registrar at the Department of Psychiatry, Federal Medical Centre, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, reacting to the possible link between gossiping and the production of feel -good hormones such as progesterone, said there was not much to suggest such a linkage.

According to Dr. Akanbi, even though an individual might derive some relief from gossiping about someone he was not too pleased with, this could in no way be linked to increased production of some hormones in the body, or the possibility of such a person getting a much improved health as a result of this factor.

The research, published in the journal, Hormones and Behaviour, was the first to show that gossiping and chatting could actually stimulate the production of such hormones. The researchers recruited 160 female students and took saliva samples to check their levels of progesterone and another hormone, cortisol, known to increase with stress. They were then put in pairs.

One half were given questions to ask each other designed to bring them closer together. These included questions such as: “Given the choice of anyone in the world, who would you want as a dinner guest?” and “What has been your greatest accomplishment?” The other pairs were asked to proofread a research paper on botany together.

After 20 minutes, the volunteers had their hormone levels checked again. The students who got to know each other through ‘chatty’ questions saw that their progesterone levels either remained the same or increased. In the other group, progesterone actually declined. There was no change in cortisol levels in either group.

The lead author, Professor Stephanie Brown from the Health Services Research and Development Centre of Excellence in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said “it’s important to find the links between biological mechanisms and human social behaviour. These links help us understand why people in close relationships are happier, healthier and live longer than those who are socially isolated.”

Social psychologists report that gossip is also beneficial in creating lasting bonds. It was shown to strengthen relationships between friends and work colleagues; reinforce shared values; offer increased feelings of “connectedness” and community spirit; assist in controlling the poor behaviour of others, particularly in an office situation; and offers a sense of status by being included in the “gossip circle”.

Gossip can even help ward off depression. Half an hour over coffee listening to the dilemmas of a third party can be enough to make some individuals realize that things are not quite so bad with them after all. Gossiping about the lives of people who seem to have it all, like Hollywood celebrities, also reinforces the idea that fate can deal a bad hand to anyone, despite beauty, money, and fame.

However, it pays to differentiate between “good” gossip and “bad” gossip. Gossip that exchanges information about our community, and brings a sense of “togetherness” can be regarded as beneficial to the individual. But spreading malicious lies does not fall under the category of “good” gossip.

Bad gossip also includes talking to a person about the behaviors of a third party in a way to malign him. Meanwhile, gossip hasn’t always been considered a bad word. The word gossip first meant godparents or a familiar acquaintance, and it was used to describe someone who told of a family’s news and developments. In Shakespeare’s time, a gossip was also someone who sat with a woman through childbirth, perhaps to talk, offer comfort, or to help her pass the time. Somewhere down through history, the word’s original meaning became tangled up in rumor-spreading and idle talk.