Gossip has been around since the first hominid overslept in a neighbor’s bed of branches.  What started around the watering hole has moved, over a million years, to the water cooler, entertainment magazines, text messaging, Facebook and Twitter.  Why is this kind of communication so enticing, natural and universal?

Webster’s defines gossip as “speaking about others’ behavior or characteristics in a way that reveals secrets or intimacies not known to the listener.”  How else would we know what behavior is acceptable and what might cause embarassment or shame?  Gossip lets us know whom we can trust, whom we can count on in the long run, and with whom we need to be on guard.   

Communication in the form of gossip is a necessary tool for survival in the jungle of everyday life and getting ahead at work.  Our Stone Age ancestors certainly discussed who was sleeping with whom, the dubious parentage of some children, who ran scared during the hunt, and who got a larger share of the last meal.  Sound familiar? 

Today much gossip surrounds who is cheating on whom, what our friends know about a potential lover, who is getting the largest paycheck, the biggest monitor or the corner office, and who simply did not pull his weight on that last project. 

Gossip is a form of trade.  Anyone who shares gossip is letting us know they are willing to reveal risky information, something that may protect us in the right circumstances.  Hinting at secrets tells others that we hold something valuable to them.  This marketplace of information  can benefit us individually and the group as a whole.