Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act of is also known as dishing or tattling.
Gossip has been researched in terms of its evolutionary psychology origins.This has found gossip to be an important means by which people can monitor cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect reciprocity.[3] Indirect reciprocity is a social interaction in which one actor helps another and is then benefited by a third party. Gossip has also been identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, as aiding social bonding in large groups.
Social media has also provided a much faster way to share gossip. In only a matter of minutes, harmful gossip and rumors can spread online from one place in the world to another.
The term is sometimes used to specifically refer to the spreading of "dirt" and misinformation, as (for example) through excited discussion of scandals. Some newspapers carry "gossip columns" which detail