Why We Love to Gossip

By Peggy Drexler

There are pros and cons of talking about other people,1. pro： 赞成者；con： 反对者。for men and women.

It is almost certain that deep in our past, a group of Mesolithic humans stood around a fresh kill, talking about someone who wasn’t holding up his end of the hunting and gathering.2. Mesolithic： 中石器时代的；hold up one’s end： 做某人分内的事。

Jump ahead 15,000 years, and we’re still at it. Office gossip is alive,flowing freely and—depending on your point of view—either as natural as casual conversation or a pathogen infecting morale,3. pathogen： 病原体；morale：士气，斗志。productivity and even health. Adding to the darker view, gossip may be a special problem for women—its most able practitioners and, perhaps, its most vulnerable targets.4. practitioner： 从事者，实践者；vulnerable： （身体或精神）脆弱的，易受伤的。

Being cautious with gossip would be common sense, but the lure of being in the loop can be seductive, and stepping out of it is a difficult call because gossip is a standard currency of human connection.5. 对待八卦要小心谨慎应是常识，但能身处其中的诱惑还是很难抵挡的，而要置身事外也会举步维艰，因为八卦是人际关系的标准通货。lure： 诱惑； in the loop：在消息圈内；seductive： 诱人的。A research team from the University of Amsterdam found that 90 percent of total office conversation qualifies as gossip. Research at the Georgia Institute of Technology concluded that gossip makes up 15 percent of office e-mail.

人类爱八卦，这是写在我们基因里的特质。在平日的工作环境中，身边同事的家长里短，一举一动都会在小圈子里作为我们的谈资，供消遣说笑之用。一些人认为互传八卦有利于情感的维系，而中枪者也深知其带来的压力和危害。当八卦变成了自我保护、打击对手的武器，当我们处在流言风暴的中心时，我们还会这么怡然自得么？

Why do we do it? Perhaps a better question is, why do we love it?

Anthropologists believe that throughout human history, gossip has been a way for us to bond with others—and sometimes a tool to isolate those who aren’t supporting the group.6. anthropologist： 人类学家；bond with： 与……交往，联系；isolate： 使孤立，使隔离。

Humans have a powerful drive to know about other people’s lives.It’s the fascination—often seasoned liberally with schadenfreude—behind a welter of magazines and television programs that have made celebrity gossip a more than $3 billion industry.7. 正是这种着迷（通常带有许多幸灾乐祸的意味）造成了杂志和电视节目的乱局，将明星八卦炒成一个超过30亿美元的产业。fascination： 着迷；season：v. 加调料；liberally： 大量地；schadenfreude： （德语）幸灾乐祸；welter： 混乱，起伏。“Your life may be more glamorous than mine,” we might think as we scan the covers, “but I’m not alcoholic.”8. glamorous： 极富魅力的，非常吸引人的；scan： 浏览；alcoholic：酗酒者。

Some argue that, at least in the workplace, gossip serves a useful purpose. Northeastern University professor Dr. Jack Levin, author of Gossip: the Inside Scoop, says it can actually be good for our emotional health. (He makes an exception for the weapons-grade rumormongering9. rumor-mongering： 造谣。that destroys reputations.) In general, he believes, gossip is a force that ties together social and business networks. Others identify it as a way to see behind the curtain of employer pronouncements10. pronouncement： 宣告，公告。.

Both research and the experiences of those who have been the targets of gossip, however, argue that gossip can hurt relationships and create a climate of fear and resentment, all of which feeds stress like humidity feeds a storm.11. 然而，研究和那些中枪者的经验都表明，传八卦会破坏关系，造成恐惧和怨恨的氛围，从而形成压力，就像湿气会形成风暴一样。resentment： 愤恨，怨恨。And workplace stress, multiple studies show,causes problems ranging from a decline in productivity to a rise in illness and absenteeism.12. multiple： 大量的；absenteeism：旷工。

The question of whether women gossip more than men,and suffer more accordingly, immediately trips over a familiar double standard: What women call gossip men might call just shooting the breeze.13. trip over： 绊倒，这里指在……上遇到困难；shoot the breeze： 闲聊。And yet differences in how men and women communicate would suggest that the impact of gossip is uneven: Studies show that women use far more words during the day than men do, and, especially woman-to-woman,those words tend to be personal. The bartering of intimacies—I share-you share—is the adhesive of female friendship.14. bartering： 以货易货，商品交换；intimacy：隐私；adhesive： 黏合剂。While women tend to bond over feelings, men tend to bond over activities—with limited intimacy. It’s no surprise that this difference in communication style translates to differences in how the genders gossip. For women, it tends to be personal: “I can’t believe how she interrupts people at meetings.” For men,it’s more likely to be about status: “Did you hear Ted bought a Mercedes15. Mercedes： 梅赛德斯－奔驰（Mercedes-Benz），德国著名的汽车品牌。?”

The darkest side of gossip emerges when it becomes the weapon—whether deployed by equal rivals fighting for a position, or by a senior executive protecting her territory.16. deploy： 使用，利用；rival： 对手，竞争者；executive：（企业或其他组织中的）行政主管，经理；territory：（某人或某组织的）管辖范围。

Most employers understand the disruption17. disruption： 破坏，分裂。workplace gossip can cause, but there is little they can do beyond encouraging open communication. Nogossip policies or zones quickly run into conflicts with free speech and workplace rights, to say nothing of the nightmare prospect of determining what was actually said to whom, and whether it had malicious intent.18. 八卦禁令或八卦禁区很快就会和言论自由与工作场所权利产生冲突，更不用说找出到底对谁说了什么和是否带有险恶用意都如噩梦般，让人不堪设想。malicious： 恶意的。

It’s a fact of life: Where there are groups, there will be gossip. It’s how we’re wired19. wire： 用金属丝把（两件或两件以上的东西）捆扎在一起，此处指连接。. But in the workplace,what’s natural can also be harmful—to morale, productivity, and careers.

The best practice is to “Mirandize”20. Mirandize： Miranda动词化，指根据美国法律中的米兰达警告，要向嫌疑犯宣读其权利，告知嫌疑犯有权保持沉默（或聘请律师）。yourself: Simply assume that anything you say can and will be used against you.