Does Explicit Concern Help Women Compete For Prestige?

Research on women’s competition, indirect aggression, and gossip has uncovered a perplexing

pattern: women deny their own competitiveness and gossip, but openly acknowledge that of

other women. The current investigation proposed one solution to this paradox: women’s

unawareness of their competitive and malicious motivations grants a competitive advantage in

female intrasexual reputation competition. Gossipers who express concern for their targets can

preserve their own social desirability while simultaneously transmitting information that harms

their target’s reputation. Two online studies tested this theory by examining the prevalence and

efficacy of concern motivations within gossip. Study 1 tested the prediction that women would

assert greater concern relative to malicious motivations for gossiping by comparing male and

female participants’ perceptions of their own and others’ social conversation motivations.

Indeed, compared to men, women endorsed stronger concern motivations and lower reputationharming

motivations when gossiping. Moreover, women were especially likely to assert

benevolent intentions when discussing same-sex peers compared to men, suggesting these

motivations characterize women’s gossip about same-sex rivals. Study 2 tested the competitive

efficacy of ostensible concern motivations. Male and female participants evaluated female

gossipers and their targets across three hypothetical gossip scenarios. The framing of the

gossiper’s statement was experimentally manipulated such that she delivered her information

with concern, with malice, or neutrally. Consistent with predictions, gossip delivered with

concern enhanced perceptions of the gossiper’s trustworthiness, interpersonal desirability, and

romantic desirability compared to gossip delivered neutrally or maliciously. Taken together,

these findings suggest women’s belief in their prosocial motivations for gossiping is a socially

advantageous strategy for female intrasexual reputation competition.