Group-bounded indirect reciprocity and intergroup gossip

Abstract

Gossip, the exchange of information about absent others, is ingrained in the system of indirect reciprocity, in which participating members selectively interact and cooperate with others with a good reputation. Previous psychological theorizing suggests that indirect reciprocity is perceived to be bounded by group membership. We aimed to examine whether the group-bounded indirect reciprocity perspective explains intergroup gossip. We thus explored how group membership shapes the expectations about how gossip is used and willingness to gossip within and across group boundaries. We conducted three studies (total N = 986) and re-analyzed a published dataset (N = 690) and comprehensively investigated how willing people expect others to be to engage in within- and between-group gossip as well as how willing they themselves are to engage in both types of gossip, in minimal and university contexts. We found that consistent with the group-bounded indirect reciprocity perspective, people expected within group gossip to be more likely than intergroup gossip. In addition, in the minimal group context, we found that people were, in general, more willing to gossip towards in-group members rather than out-group members. However, in the university context, they were more willing to gossip about in-group and out-group members towards out-group and in-group members, respectively, suggesting that people may utilize intergroup gossip for strategic reasons. Our research was the first to experimentally elucidate the role of group membership in shaping expectations about gossip and willingness to gossip, and offers a promising starting point for future work on intergroup gossip and indirect reciprocity.