Normally, when someone says “your ears must have been burning”, they’re implying that they were talking about you FAVORABLY. But what if they were talking smack?
There’s a new study out, which says that 15% of people would rather be trash-talked behind their backs, than not mentioned at all.
The researchers conducted five experiments with more than 2,000 participants, and in the end, they found that a solid 64% of people WANT to be gossiped about behind their backs, when it’s something POSITIVE.
Roughly 25% want to be talked about when it’s “ambiguous” whether it’s about something good OR bad. And 15%, or 1 in 7, would want people gossiping about them about something NEGATIVE, if the alternative is that people don’t talk about them at all.
The percentages are about the same whether the gossip was happening at a social gathering or a workplace setting. And men are more okay with the negative stuff than women.
The researchers say this proves that, for a good chunk of people, “social invisibility is a fate worse than being badmouthed.”
(Study Finds / Self and Identity)
