https://doi.org/10.25198/2077-7175-2021-2-112
STUDY OF THE PHENOMENON OF GOSSIP: MAIN APPROACHES AND THEIR LIMITATIONS
Z. Yu. Pereselkova
Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russia
e-mail: anizz@yandex.ru
Abstract. The article is devoted to the current socio-philosophical problem of the interpretation of the phe¬nomenon of gossip, as the type of estimated conversation on the absent individuals. The relevance of the research appeal to the issues of gossip and gossipation is due to the widespread spread of them in informal interaction, despite the dominant practice of public condemnation. The purpose of the study is to disclose gossip as the forms of communication interaction, its social functions. Dialectical, comparative, phenomenological research methods were used in the work; using the general scientific methodology (cognitive, analytical, comparison and generaliza¬tion method), textual materials were studied.
Within the framework of the study, two main approaches that reveal the functions of gossip in social interac-tion are information and functionalist. The informational approach postulates a gossip as a comparison tool for individual characteristics with the characteristics of those with whom the interaction occurs, indicates its ability to access it important to the comparison processes. From the position of the functionalism, the gossip is recorded for members of group interactions current values and associated norms and sanctions. The limitations of these approaches is that none of them represents a complete picture of motivation to reproduction of gossip. Also in the article on the example of experimental studies, the effect of the recursive installation transfer effect (Transfer of Attitudes Recursively – TAR) is shown in relation to gossip when individuals, often gossiping and distributing negative estimates are negatively perceived in small groups. The appeal of the author of the article on the theory of rituals of the Inactivity of R. Collins, made it possible to analyze the gossip as a product of direct interaction, in the presence of its attributes as a physical conventionity and a common emotional state, and conclude the pos-sibility of consideration of gossip as an effective second-order interaction ritual (when the object of attention. Its participants are aspects of previous interaction rituals). As part of the theory of interaction rituals, it is also possible to explain the motivation to the gossip, as a means for establishing solidarity between interacting entities (group effect) and increase the charge of emotional energy (at an individual level).
Key words: gossip, social interaction, evaluation judgments, information approach, functionalist approach, TAR effect, theory of interaction rituals, solidarity.
Cite as: Pereselkova, Z. Yu. (2021) [Study of the phenomenon of gossip: main approaches and their limitations]. Intellekt. Innovatsii. Investitsii [Intellect. Innovations. Investments]. Vol. 2, рр. 112–116. DOI: 10.25198/2077-7175-2021-2-112.
