JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

The cover story in the current issue of the Scientific American is The Science of Gossip: Why We Can’t Stop Ourselves. According to the article by Frank T. McAndrew, humans are hardwired to be fascinated by gossip.

Really? You think? And you actually did research to support that? 

Looks like the Scientific American is trying to beef up circulation, and its strategy is to dumb down for a wider audience. Ah well, it’s hard enough for a magazine to survive in this market. But let’s see what valuable research findings the article presents.

“According to one of the pioneers of gossip research, anthropologist Jerome Barkow of Dalhousie University, we should be especially interested in information about people who matter most in our lives: rivals, mates, relatives, partners in social exchange, and high-ranking figures whose behavior can affect us.”

“In keeping with the evolutionary hypotheses suggested earlier, we have consistently found that people are most interested in gossip about individuals of the same sex as themselves who happen to be around their own age.”

“We have also found that an interest in the affairs of same-sex others is especially strong among females and that women have somewhat different patterns of sharing gossip than men do.”

Well DUH. I can get that knowledge from Entertainment Weekly or Tita Swarding, but with more fun and less faux-scientific ek. Still, if gossip is an evolutionary adaptation, then we Pinoys are way more evolved than other humans. 

Saffy: I could’ve told you that.

On a slow news week, gossip can be whipped up over nothing. Like a good serve, it’s all about placement. Consider this bit from Tennis.com:

“Life on the professional circuit can be grinding, so a little bit of off court distraction helps. Romance? That qualifies, and more than a few of the world’s best tennis players seem to be engaging in this other game of love.

“In Tokyo just a couple of weeks back, longtime couple Lucie Safarova and Tomas Berdych were almost inseparable. . .

“Also arm-in-arm were Fernando Gonzalez and Gisela Dulko. . .

“Far away from Tokyo, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, both dear to many women’s hearts, were spending some quality time with the ladies in their lives. (Sorry.)”

Gotcha.