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Monday, January 29, 2001
Contact: Peter Bailley
news@knox.edu
309-341-7715
Frank McAndrew, professor of psychology at Knox College, will give a lecture, "The Psychology of Gossip," at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday Jan. 30, 2001 in Room E-117, Umbeck Science and Mathematics Center, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. The event is free and open to the public.
According to McAndrew, prior research into gossip has taken an anecdotal approach, implying that gossip is largely frivolous behavior. Research conducted by McAndrew and one of his former students, Megan Milenkovic "showed that gossip can also function in the evolutionary interest of individuals, as a means of enhancing individual status," McAndrew said. The research by McAndrew and Milenkovic, which covers two studies, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
In one study, more than 100 participants were shown a series of articles about celebrities -- ranging from Frank Sinatra and Jane Wyman to Robert Downey, Jr., and Courtney Cox. The participants were asked to tell which articles they were most interested in. The study found that we're most interested in gossip about persons similar to ourselves, McAndrew said.
A second study asked how likely participants were to read and pass along gossip about hypothetical situations typical of those covered in the media -- such as someone caught in a scandal, winning a major award or receiving a large inheritance. The study revealed that we're most likely to pass along embarrassing gossip about high-status persons who are not our friends.
"People actively seek out and make use of information that will be useful in competition for social status with other individuals," McAndrew said. "We offer an evolutionary explanation -- that keeping track of status and managing alliances is an important survival skill, and we've inherited an interest in gossip because it's a particular kind of information about other people."
The lecture is the second installment in the PsychoProfs Lecture Series, sponsored by Knox College Psychology Club, in which professors in Knox's psychology department will discuss their current research.
McAndrew, who holds the Cornelia H. Dudley Professorship in Psychology, has taught at Knox since 1979. Milenkovic graduated from Knox in 1997 with honors in psychology and did graduate studies in applied social psychology at Loyola University in Chicago.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,220 students from 47 states and 41 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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Frank McAndrew
Knox College Psychology Department
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