A little gossip may be good for your relationship, study finds

A couple walk by the sea during sunset in the resort of Ayia Napa in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, on Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

A new study has found that a little gossip can be good for your relationship, at least when you keep it between the two of you.

Published in August by the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, the study examined the daily conversations of 76 different couples, comparing topics and trends against their own reports of satisfaction in their relationships.

The pair of California psychologists behind the study found instances of gossip among partners to be “positively associated” with high scores for happiness and relationship quality.

“Gossip may play a particularly important role in strengthening these bonds,” the study reads.

For the duration of the study, participants wore microphones that would occasionally listen in on samples of their conversations, ultimately recording roughly 14 per cent of their daily interactions, on average.

The typical couple in the sample spent around 38 minutes per day gossiping, with 29 of those minutes spent doing so with each other. Broken out by gender and sexuality, the data showed that “woman-woman couples produced the greatest amount of gossip,” and also scored highest for self-reported relationship quality.

As for the reason, researchers say outward-facing gossip could serve a variety of goals in maintaining a healthy relationship, from fostering more communication, to establishing expectations and behaviours, to simply affirming that both partners are on “the same team.”

“For example, negatively gossiping with one’s romantic partner on the way home from a party could signal that the couple’s bond is stronger than with their friends at the party,” the study concludes. “Positively gossiping could prolong the fun experiences.”

The August study is the latest in co-author Megan Robbins’ research into the nature of gossip.

A prior study featuring the same microphone technology published in 2019 found that, contrary to some stereotypes, women did not engage in negative gossip more often than men, nor did lower-income participants do so more than those in higher income brackets.