Aggression as a Motive for Gossip During Conflict: The Role of Power, Social Value Orientation, and Counterpart's Behavior

Not much is known about the motives behind the use of gossip in conflict situations. We report a laboratory experiment that examined the influence of social value orientation, counterpart's behavior, and power on the motive to use gossip for indirect aggression in a conflict situation. Results showed that when participants had high power, their social value orientation determined whether they were motivated to gossip to indirectly aggress toward their counterpart: Proself participants showed a higher motivation to do so than prosocial participants. In contrast, when participants had low power, the motive to engage in indirect aggression through gossip was influenced by the counterpart's behavior: Participants who encountered a competitive counterpart showed a higher motivation to aggress through gossip than participants who encountered a cooperative counterpart.