How gossip became humanity’s oldest viral trend

In a recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Researchers have devised an evolutionary game theory model and a series of agent-based tests to understand the evolution and persistence of gossip, perhaps the most universal social human trait. Their study evaluates the hypothesis that reputation dissemination and suppression of egoism form key features of the evolutionary stability of gossip, and then tests the causality of this evolutionary cycle.

Their findings suggest that the spread of information about absent third parties may encourage individuals to condition their behavior according to the reputations of others. Coupled with the tendency for individuals to act cooperatively toward gossipers in order to enhance their own reputations, gossip has been pervasive in human society and will continue to be pervasive for some time to come.

Explain the evolution of gossip. Image credit: Ollyy / Shutterstock

Gossip – The world’s most shared mystery?

Gossip is the social dissemination of (often unconfirmed) information about absent third parties, usually in informal or open-ended conversations. History reveals that gossip has been a fundamental feature of human civilization since ancient times, and its earliest records may be found in Mesopotamia and ancient Greece. Science hypothesizes that gossip is a common feature of hunter-gatherer societies, and that similar traits may be found in higher primate groups.

Research estimates that modern people spend about an hour gossiping every day. Surprisingly, the study was unable to uncover significant differences between cohorts in the ubiquity of gossip, with all people indulging in the activity, regardless of age, gender, social status, or personality type. Not yet. But it’s equally surprising, even though gossip has existed for thousands of years, where did it come from, how did it permeate known human civilization, and how does it survive today? We still don’t know why it remains one of the most common human pastimes.

“Previous theories have attempted to explain the origins of gossip in terms of its role in human survival, particularly its role in maintaining large group bonds and cooperation. Gossip spreads information about people’s reputations and It allows people to choose to help cooperative others and avoid being exploited by selfish people. This mechanism has been widely studied as an indirect form of reciprocity that maintains cooperation. Moreover, the possibility of being gossiped about also raises concerns about people’s reputations. As a result, people tend to behave more cooperatively under the threat of gossip.

Despite their scientific value, these hypotheses fail to explain the evolution of gossip in the first place and instead focus on the benefits of gossip. Gossip takes time and energy and involves sharing knowledge, which is an essential resource in resource-limited environments. Therefore, gossip is non-adaptive and should not occur in natural populations, and mutants are quickly removed by natural selection. Moreover, these hypotheses emphasize the benefits to the gossiper while underestimating the role and stochasticity of the benefits to the receiver. The information obtained from a gossip event must first guide and modify the recipient’s behavior before any substantial benefit can be obtained.

Gossip evolution cycle

This study proposes an “evolutionary cycle of gossip” and hypothesizes that gossip can establish itself as an evolutionary stability strategy (ESS) through the interaction and positive feedback between reputation dissemination and egoism suppression. is standing. We then used agent-based computer simulations to build a game-theoretic model incorporating his two gossip functions to test this hypothesis. Once established, they will further use simulations to test the pathways involved in this escalating causal relationship.

“…we argue that the reputation-spreading function of gossip makes reputations more available, so that more people consider others’ reputations when interacting with others. As more people base their actions on their reputations, more people are also concerned about their own reputations. This reputational concern makes them more cooperative when interacting with gossipers. You will take charge of your reputation by acting accordingly.”

This model incorporates two decision-making strategies for each gossip game player: “cooperation” and “gossip.” This decision tree analyzes six personality types under different scenarios, including unconditional collaborators (AC), unconditional defectors (AD, players who use reputation information to protect themselves (CC), and players). Based on this, determine the player’s situation and degree of cooperation. His last two categories, those who use reputational information to exploit others (CD), are sensitive to gossip and are influenced by the egoism-deterrent function of the gossip trait.

The reputation system in this study represents that key innovation and determines the process by which players build their belief systems about their opponents. Their reputation system design allows players to reason about each other’s conditional actions, avoiding further confusion from higher-order moral judgments.

“In this setting, agents make assumptions about each other’s underlying strategies, rather than simply evaluating each other on a dichotomy or one-dimensional spectrum of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as in previous models. form. ”

research result

Of the 5,000 simulations performed, the overwhelming majority (90%, N = 4,000) showed the evolution of gossip, all of which allowed the spread and eventual establishment of this trait throughout the population. We verified its robustness as an evolutionary strategy. Surprisingly, even when suboptimal or maladaptive, gossip remained entrenched in the group as long as the maladaptive costs were not set too high.

The research revealed that exploitative (GC) strategies are the most adopted among players (57%). Nevertheless, the overall cooperation rate of the population remains high (78%). This is thought to be due to the gradual increase in the density of gossipers and the sensitivity of the population to its reputation as a whole. Reputation spread function analysis sheds light on these results by revealing that gossip improves access to reputation and allows players to more accurately predict their neighbors’ strategies.

“…gossipers evolve under a wide selection of parameters, but their proportions vary as a function of these parameters. Especially when individuals belong to social networks with many stable connections. , more gossip occurs when these social connections and interactions are deep, when they interact frequently, when they talk to each other often, and when their beliefs are different.The impact of gossip is moderate to large. We do, but the evolution happens slowly.”

conclusion

In this study, the researchers developed a new hypothesis to explain the evolution and persistence of gossip and devised a game-theoretic model and agent-based tests to simulate the validity of the hypothesis. Their findings suggest that gossip develops from an escalating interaction of positive feedback: spreading reputation and suppressing egoism. Their simulations highlight the robustness of the trait and its persistence once it emerges within a population.

Applying a similar modeling framework to other aspects of human interaction could help unravel the prevalence of behaviors that we consider routine, but that have profound implications for evolution and survival. There is a gender.