Social curiosity and gossip: related but different drives of social functioning.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23936130.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0069996 and PMC identifier 3729462.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The present online-questionnaire study examined two fundamental social behaviors, social curiosity and gossip, and their interrelations in an English (n = 218) and a German sample (n = 152). Analyses showed that both samples believed that they are less gossipy but more curious than their peers. Multidimensional SEM of self and trait conceptions indicated that social curiosity and gossip are related constructs but with different patterns of social functions. Gossip appears to serve predominantly entertainment purposes whereas social curiosity appears to be more driven by a general interest in gathering information about how other people feel, think, and behave and the need to belong. Relationships to other personality traits (N, E, O) provided additional evidence for divergent validity. The needs for gathering and disseminating social information might represent two interlinked but different drives of cultural learning.
Medical subject headings
- Exploratory Behavior
- Interpersonal Relations
- Social Behavior
- Surveys and Questionnaires