Aggression as a Motive for Gossip During Conflict The Role of Power, Social Value Orientation, and Counterpart's Behavior

Not much is known about the motives behind the use of gossip in conflict situations. We report a laboratory experiment that examined the influence of social value orientation, counterpart's behavior, and power on the motive to use gossip for indirect aggression in a conflict situation. Results showed that when participants had high power, their social value orientation determined whether they were motivated to gossip to indirectly aggress toward their counterpart: Proself participants showed a higher motivation to do so than prosocial participants. In contrast, when participants had low power, the motive to engage in indirect aggression through gossip was influenced by the counterpart's behavior: Participants who encountered a competitive counterpart showed a higher motivation to aggress through gossip than participants who encountered a cooperative counterpart.