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Cited by 1,068

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 5 of the 5 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Gossip in Evolutionary Perspective

Dunbar, R. I. M.·2004·Review of General Psychology
DOI 10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.100
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Abstract

Conversation is a uniquely human phenomenon. Analyses of freely forming conversations indicate that approximately two thirds of conversation time is devoted to social topics, most of which can be given the generic label gossip. This article first explores the origins of gossip as a mechanism for bonding social groups, tracing these origins back to social grooming among primates. It then asks why social gossip in this sense should form so important a component of human interaction and presents evidence to suggest that, aside from servicing social networks, a key function may be related explicitly to controlling free riders. Finally, the author reviews briefly the role of social cognition in facilitating conversations of this kind.

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Citations

Cites

Show all 5 references

Research works printed but not linked: 27

  1. Astington J. W., 1993, The child's discovery of the mind
  2. Beattie G., 1983, Talk: An analysis of speech and non-verbal behavior in conversation
  3. 10.1111/1467-8624.00028 · DOI · Paper page
  4. Coates J., 1993, Men, women and language
  5. 10.1017/S0140525X00016393 · DOI · Paper page
  6. 10.1007/978-1-4684-6694-2 · DOI · Paper page
  7. 10.1017/S0140525X00032325 · DOI · Paper page
  8. Dunbar R. I. M., 1996, Evolution of culture and language in primates and humans, 33
  9. Dunbar R. I. M., 1996, Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language
  10. 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<178::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-8 · DOI
  11. Dunbar R. I. M., 1998, Approaches to the evolution of language, 92
  12. 10.1007/BF02734136 · DOI
  13. 10.1080/14792779108401861 · DOI · Paper page
  14. 10.1006/anbe.1993.1089 · DOI · Paper page
  15. 10.7591/9781501718106 · doi:10.7591/9781501718106
  16. 10.1007/978-3-642-68254-4_16 · DOI
  17. Haviland J. B., 1977, Gossip, reputation and knowledge in Zinacantan
  18. HillR. A. & DunbarR. I. M. (in press). Human social networks. Human Nature.
  19. Johnson A. W., 1987, The evolution of human societies: From foraging groups to agrarian state
  20. Kendon A., 1973, Comparative ecology and behavior of primates, 591
  21. 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1998.tb02680.x · DOI · Paper page
  22. 10.1086/204588 · DOI · Paper page
  23. 10.3998/mpub.9739 · DOI · Paper page
  24. SeepersandF. (1999). Laughter and language in evolution. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England.
  25. SwarbrickR. (2000). A social cognitive model of paranoid delusions. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Manchester, Manchester, England.
  26. Tomasello M., 1998, Primate social cognition
  27. Whiten A., 1991, Natural theories of mind

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Metadata

Authors
Dunbar, R. I. M.
Venue
Review of General Psychology
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2004-06
Volume
8
Issue
2
Pages
100-110
ISSN
  • 1089-2680 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1552
DOI
10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.100
OpenAlex
W2110258639
Cited by
1,068
References
5
FWCI
21.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)

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Dunbar, R. I. M. (2004). Gossip in Evolutionary Perspective. Review of General Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.100

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.