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Dr Sara Sereno, of the University of Glasgow, explained: "Gossip revolves around its content and its target.To us, a good piece of gossip should be judged as information worthy of being passed on to those who are well placed to appreciate its content.
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Christine married Paul Johnson; it was discovered she was infertile, and they adopted a son, Peter.After 10 years of marriage and three children, I embarked on an affair with a work colleague.Both in our late 30s, we were two lost souls who sought comfort and companionship during our time together.The conclusions were based on an experiment which involved getting groups of people to make financial decisions intended to serve a greater good.In between sessions they were given the opportunity to ‘gossip’ about their fellow group members, which in turn allowed the participants to exclude people who attempted to be uncooperative or exploitative.A wise woman once gave this definition: “If you aren’t a part of the problem or the solution, then it’s gossip.” But the participants in the Stanford study had clearly been given responsibility for solving a problem, hadn’t they?
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