GOSSIP: HOW WOULD YOU REACT? The moderating role of achievement goals on the relationship between the valence of gossip and emotional reactions of gossip objects

GOSSIP: HOW WOULD YOU REACT?

The moderating role of achievement goals on the relationship between the

valence of gossip and emotional reactions of gossip objects

Master thesis, Msc HRM

University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business

February 2, 2014

by

FRANCINE TOL

Student number: S1825496

Eendrachtskade ZZ 12-25

9726 CW Groningen

+31(0)6-40397384

f.e.tol@student.rug.nl

Supervisor:

E. Martinescu

2 ABSTRACT

This research will focus on exploring how gossip valence and achievement goals determine different emotional reactions on the person who is the object of gossip. Analyses of data from an experiment (N = 225) confirmed the hypothesis that predicted the influence of gossip valence on the emotions joviality, pride and guilt, but not for attentiveness. Further analyses found no relationship between achievement goals and emotions or a moderation effect of achievement goals on the relationship between gossip valence and emotions. The current study suggests that organizations should practice open communication for healthy levels of gossip. Gossip is prevalent and both positive and negative gossip can motivate employees and help them learn to improve their work. The limitations, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Positive and negative Gossip, Gossip Valence, Achievement Goals, Mastery Goals, Performance Goals, Emotions, Reactions, Target/Object of Gossip

INTRODUCTION

Gossip, or talking about others in their absence in an evaluative way, is one of the most common human activities. Research has shown that people devote approximately 65% to 90% of their speaking time to talking about other people, with only little variation among age, gender, and cultures (Dunbar, 1996; Dunbar, 2004; Dunbar, Duncan, & Marriott, 1997; Emler, 1994). Up to two thirds of all these conversations refer to a third party (Emler, 1994). Gossip as a social phenomenon has been explored from within the fields of anthropology, history, linguistics, gender studies, psychology, and sociology (Waddington, 2012). More and more gossip is found to be very relevant in organizational environments, because it plays a large role in the functioning of the employees.

In the present research we define gossip as “informal, evaluative talk about a member of the discussants’ social environment who is not present” (Kniffin & Wilson, 2010; Wert & Salovey, 2004). Evaluative talk suggests that gossip can be both positive and negative. While gossip used to have a negative connotation, nowadays more and more researchers find that gossip is more than just malicious talk. Gossip arises in contexts where one is aiming to meet the need for belonging, where people maintain their social network (Smith, Lucas, & Latkin, 1999). Wert and Salovey (2004) argue that gossip is purposeful and perhaps even necessary for healthy social functioning. Dunbar (1993) credits gossip from an evolutionary perspective, he believes gossip is the core of human social relationships and that without gossip, there would be no society. Michelson and Iterson (2010) find gossip a way of talking that enables the communication of emotions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes about the experience of work and organizational life. Gossip counters free riding in a group and is also found to lower stress (Feinberg, Willer, Stellar, & Keltner, 2012). Therefore it can be concluded that gossip has a very important role in organizations because it is part of everyday life and vital for human interaction.

3 research will therefore expand on the existing literature by looking more into the emotional reactions of gossip objects when they learn the gossip that others have spread about them. When people hear gossip about themselves, gossip will likely elicit different emotions for the object. What emotions people experience might depend on the valence of the gossip – positive or negative, and the type of achievement goal people have – either mastery or performance. This reaction is relevant for organizations because feelings are responsible for causing shifts in motivational focus and influence work behaviors. When experiencing emotional reactions, behaviors to cope with the emotions get priority and take precedence over other behaviors (Lazarus, 1991; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). These emotions, in turn, will influence work behaviors and attitudes. Emotions are not only a product of individual experiences, but rather as products of social relationships, such as gossip. Therefore emotions are relevant reactions of gossip objects, which will be investigated further in the present research.

This research investigates emotional reactions to being the object of gossip by using the achievement goal framework. Achievement goals are defined as competence-relevant aims that individuals strive for in achievement settings (Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, 1984). Earlier research on achievement goals used a dichotomous framework grounded in the mastery– performance distinction (Dweck, 1986; Nicholls, 1984), with mastery goals focusing on the development of competence and performance goals focusing on the demonstration of competence. A person’s achievement goals are a promising set of antecedents for emotions, as goals are thought to exert a broad influence on peoples affect, cognition, and behavior in achievement settings (Dweck, 1986; Elliot, 1997; Nicholls, 1984). More specifically, goals can be expected to influence people’s emotions when they are the object of gossip. Consequently, we propose the following research question: How do achievement goals

influence the relationship between the valence of gossip and the emotional reactions of gossip objects?

This research will focus on exploring how these factors determine different emotional reactions on the objects of gossip and the possible implications for how to deal with this effectively for the organization.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Gossip

In the act of gossiping there are at least three people involved; the gossiper (sender), who speaks with the receiver, and the third person, or the gossip object, who is not physically present. This can also be called the gossip triad, as shown in Figure 1.

4 Source: Ellwardt (2011)

Valence of gossip. In the past, gossip was often seen negatively; as exclusively self-serving behavior aimed at manipulating others and influencing them to make yourself look good (Baker & Jones, 1996; De Backer, 2006; Paine, 1967). Recent research, however, argues for a more positive view on gossip (Baumeister, Zhang, & Vohs, 2004; Dunbar, 2004; Foster, 2004). A growing number of researchers have found that gossip can be both positive and negative. In a study by Levin and Arluke (1985) the content of 194 instances of conversational gossip was analyzed and the results clearly showed the widespread use of positive gossip. Whereas only 27% of the gossip instances were completely negative, an equal number (27%) were completely positive. The remaining instances contained some positivity and some negativity. Bergmann (1993) mentions the discrepancy between the collective public condemnation and the collective private practicing of gossip. Foster (2004) refers to this as “the paradox of gossip”; it is widespread, yet there appear to be numerous social sanctions against it.

Previous research has shown that there often is a greater interest in hearing negative gossip than there is in hearing positive gossip (Barkow, 1992; Baumeister et al., 2004; Davis & Mcleod, 2003; De Backer & Gurven, 2006). Firstly, negative information is hidden from the gossip object and therefore more difficult for them to come by. Secondly, negative gossip may contain information about behavior or intentions that have a damaging impact on the group. Empirical studies have shown that negative gossip is used to socially control and sanction uncooperative behavior and counter free riding within groups (De Pinninck, Sierra, & Schorlemmer, 2008; Elias & Scotson, 1965; Merry, 1984). Individuals often cooperate and comply with group norms simply because they fear reputation-damaging gossip and ostracism. Being the object of negative gossip can result in consequences similar to victimization, such as limiting work-related success and frustrating the fundamental psychological need to belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). In fear of the consequences, the object of gossip may experience different kinds of emotions and may want to counter this gossip.

Object. By gossiping positively about other members of the group who are not present, group members stay informed about each other and demonstrate support and solidarity towards the gossip object and the group (Burt & Knez, 1996; De Backer & Gurven, 2006; Dunbar, 2004; McAndrew, Bell, & Garcia 2007). This might make objects feel positive emotions when they hear the gossip. We expect that positive gossip will elicit positive emotions in the object of gossip. For negative gossip, it has been argued that individuals who violate social norms tend to be the objects of negative gossip and are usually targeted by those who want to enforce these norms (Aquino & Thau, 2009). For persons who are the object of gossip, the act and content of gossip may damage their relationships and can make them feel like an outsider (Elias, Scotson, 1965; Soeters, & Van Iterson, 2002). This is undesirable in a work related context because it is expected that people will experience negative emotions to being the object of negative gossip.

Reactions: Emotions

5 cognitive and dispositional elements - ‘emotion states include decision-making and a disposition to act, and so emotion has elements of reason and action as well as of feeling’. Lewis and Haviland-Jones (2000) show that emotions are of fundamental importance for learning and memory, motivation, development and psychological health. Therefore, the emotional reaction of the object to gossip cannot be overlooked and this will be the focus of this research.

Emotions are important for learning and shape learning experiences, positive emotions play a role in the maintenance of self-esteem and confidence (Varlander, 2008). According to Dirkx (2001), emotions are central to our ways of knowing, and they can either impede or motivate learning. Emotions drive attention, which in turn drives learning, memory, and problem-solving behavior. Another important function of emotion is to promote adaptation to life in a cultural society, because emotion causes people to analyze the meaning of recent events to learn useful lessons from them (Baumeister, 2004; Baumeister, Zhang, & Bargh, 2003). Negative emotions in particular stimulate retrospective analysis, including counterfactual thinking (Roese, 1997). Thus, the object reacts emotionally to hearing gossip, which might lead to a learning moment for the object.

Baumeister, Zhang and Vohs (2004) found that gossip tends to make receivers react with negative emotions in the majority of cases, but positive emotional reactions also occur in almost half (41%) of the cases (Baumeister et al, 2004). If receivers of gossip experience all these emotions upon hearing gossip, the same emotions are likely to be found in the object upon receiving gossip about themselves. Thus it could be inferred from this that gossip influences the emotions that objects experience, and the emotions will vary depending on the valence of gossip. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 states:

Hypothesis 1: Positive gossip leads to higher levels of positive emotions (such as joviality, attentiveness and pride) and lower levels of negative emotions (such as guilt) as compared to negative gossip.

Achievement goals

People find it very important to achieve things in their work, but the way this is achieved or how people define competence differs between individuals. Achievement goals can predict interpersonal behaviors that can influence how people react to others. Investigations show that different achievement goals lead to different perceptions of a situation and of others in an achievement environment. These perceptions can in turn lead to differences in social outcomes (Poortvliet & Darnon, 2010) and differences in what emotions people experience, because people may work with or against others to attain their goals. Therefore we expect that the achievement goal of the object will lead to different emotional reactions to gossip.

6 aim of improving one’s own performance, whereas performance goals reflect the pursuit of outperforming others (Dweck, 1986). People who strive for mastery goals predominantly compare their present performance with their previous performance and thus develop a self-referenced focus in achievement situations. On the other hand, people who pursue performance goals tend to compare their performance with those of others to monitor their progress toward their desired goal, thereby developing a focus referenced to others. People with performance goals see other people as threats and as their competitors, they are less willing to coordinate with others because they want to outperform them and therefore do not want to depend on their actions (Darnon, Muller, Schrager, Pannuzzo, & Butera, 2006). To investigate what the emotional reactions are of people with different achievement goals, we can relate the feedback literature to the gossip object when it reaches this person. Feedback provides people with information about their performance; it is communicated in order to keep people in line with norms and values, to prevent free riding and to let people know what they are doing well or what is not acceptable within the group (Poortvliet & Janssen, 2009). Feedback is defined as ‘information about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way’ (Ramaprasad, 1983). Gossip provides receivers and objects of gossip with information as well (Dunbar, 1993; Michelson & Iterson, 2010) and keeps people aligned with social norms. Therefore the literature on how people react to feedback is relevant to how people react to gossip. Mastery goal individuals see ability as something that can be improved over time, so they believe feedback is important for them to improve (Park, Schmidt, Scheu, & DeShon, 2007). In addition, they do not mind asking for feedback as much as people with performance-based goals, they see it as something positive because they can learn from this information. This makes people with mastery goals less afraid of negative feedback. Therefore, a mastery goal orientation leads individuals to seek feedback more often and they have a preference for more diagnostic feedback (VandeWalle & Cummings, 1997), which leads us to expect that mastery individuals will feel positive emotions for both positive and negative gossip. We also expect that objects with mastery goals who receive positive gossip will feel confirmed that they are going in the right direction. As individuals gained feedback information, they were better able to adapt their goals, which benefited their performance. Therefore, feedback is an important mechanism that directs people’s efforts to the attainment of their personal achievement goals (DeShon, Kozlowski, Schmidt, Milner, & Wiechmann, 2004; Senko & Harackiewicz, 2005). On the basis of these arguments, we expect that gossip may influence the emotions of objects with mastery goals in a more positive way and objects with performance goals in a more negative way. Specifically, Hypothesis 2 states:

Hypothesis 2: Mastery goals lead to higher levels of positive emotions as compared to performance goals.

We will now specify what emotions are expected for the combination of achievement goals and gossip valence. Firstly, two mastery goal situations are described, for positive and negative gossip. The same will be explained for positive and negative gossip in a performance goal situation.

7 negatively related to subsequent boredom and anger. Specifically, mastery goals are viewed as focusing attention on ongoing mastery of the activity and the positive value of the activity itself. Therefore, mastery goals are expected to facilitate positive activity emotions and to inhibit negative activity emotions (Pekrun, Elliot, & Maier, 2006). Based on this, we expect that positive gossip relates to enjoyment of learning in the object of gossip and therefore we expect an object with mastery goals experiences mostly joviality when they receive positive gossip. Specifically, Hypothesis 3a is stated as follows:

Hypothesis 3a. People with Mastery goals who receive positive gossip about

themselves will feel more joviality as compared to people with performance goals who receive positive gossip.

Research on conflict shows that, in a context where mastery goals were emphasized, conflict was beneficial for learning, whereas in a context where performance goals were emphasized, conflict was deleterious for learning (Darnon, Harackiewicz, Butera, Mugny, & Quiamzade, 2007). This could indicate that even when objects with mastery goals receive negative gossip they still want to improve themselves. Therefore we expect that they are positive about this information and might experience positive emotions such as attentiveness. Negative gossip has a larger influence on people than positive gossip, because negative information about someone is considered more diagnostic of moral character than positive information (Skowronski & Carlston, 1987). Therefore, it can be inferred from the feedback literature that objects with mastery goals have more to learn from negative gossip than from positive gossip and we expect they will make use of this information to improve themselves. The positive emotions mastery goals experience are more likely to elicit persistence, prolonged task engagement, and foster the development of enjoyment (Elliot & Church, 1997; 2003; Harackiewicz, Barron, Carter, Lehto, & Andrew 1997). Thus, we expect to see the most attentiveness in objects with mastery goals who hear negative gossip about themselves, because they might use the information constructively to improve themselves. Therefore,

Hypothesis 3b is stated as follows:

Hypothesis 3b. People with Mastery goals who receive negative gossip about

themselves will feel more attentiveness as compared to people with performance goals who receive negative gossip.

8 Hypothesis 4a. People with Performance goals who receive positive gossip about

themselves will feel more pride as compared to people with mastery goals who receive positive gossip.

Finally, when people gossip negatively they express contempt about the gossip object, which can lead to negative emotions for the object (Wert & Salovey, 2004). When people with performance goals receive negative feedback it is expected that they might feel like they are failing to achieve their goal to outperform others (Dewar & Kavussanu, 2011; Pekrun et al, 2006). People with performance goals who experience conflict impede their learning (Darnon, Butera, et al., 2007; Darnon, Harackiewicz, Butera, Mugny, & Quiamzade, 2007). People with performance goals do not handle negative feedback very well and negative gossip might give them the feeling they did worse than other people, thereby failing to achieve their main goal. We expect this will lead them to experience negative emotions, such as guilt. Therefore,

Hypothesis 4b is stated as follows:

Hypothesis 4b. People with Performance goals who receive negative gossip about themselves will feel more guilt as compared to people with mastery goals who receive negative gossip.

Research question and hypotheses

As mentioned in the introduction, this research will investigate the following question:

How do achievement goals influence the relationship between the valence of gossip and the emotional reactions of gossip objects?

From this research question the following model can be deduced:

FIGURE 2 Conceptual model

The following hypotheses were drawn:

Hypothesis 1: Positive gossip leads to higher levels of positive emotions (such as joviality, attentiveness and pride) and lower levels of negative emotions (such as guilt) as compared to negative gossip.

Gossip Valence (Positive/Negative)

Achievement Goal of object (Performance/Mastery)

9 Hypothesis 2: Mastery goals lead to higher levels of positive emotions as compared to

performance goals.

Hypothesis 3a. People with mastery goals who receive positive gossip about

themselves will feel more joviality as compared to people with performance goals who receive positive gossip.

Hypothesis 3b. People with mastery goals who receive negative gossip about

themselves will feel more attentiveness as compared to people with performance goals who receive negative gossip.

Hypothesis 4a. People with performance goals who receive positive gossip about themselves will feel more pride as compared to people with mastery goals who receive positive gossip.

Hypothesis 4b. People with performance goals who receive negative gossip about themselves will feel more guilt as compared to people with mastery goals who receive negative gossip.

METHOD Participants and Procedure

An experiment was designed to measure the influence of gossip on objects’ emotions. The sample consisted of 225 participants (52% male, 48% female), all students from the University of Groningen. All participants were economics and business students, of which mostly Dutch (71%), German (9%) or Chinese (6%) students. Participants were aged between 18 to 41 years (M = 21,8 years, SD = 3,2).

To test our hypotheses we performed an experiment in the research lab. Participants were told the experiment was about group communication, working in a study group on an assignment. Upon arrival at the lab, participants were led to individual cubicles, each of which contained a computer. Instructions for the experiment appeared on the computer screen. Participants were randomly assigned to a mastery goal, performance goal or control condition. Next to one of these conditions, participants were randomly assigned positive or negative gossip, resulting in a 3 (Achievement goal: Mastery vs. Performance vs. Control condition) × 2 (Valence of gossip: Positive vs. Negative) research design.

Task

10 find the cost- benefit balance of outsourcing the marketing efforts of the organization important. Then respondents had to summarize their goal and name three arguments why this goal is important. They were also asked how they would pursue this goal.

Next, the participants had to imagine the situation in which they overhear two group members talking behind their back, about their contribution to the group assignment. Here participants were assigned either to the positive or negative gossip condition. For positive gossip, participants read that they are good group members and have a remarkable contribution to the assignment. For negative gossip, participants read that they are lazy and group members dislike working with them because their contribution to the assignment is disappointing. After the manipulation check participants were asked to answer questions about their emotions with the above situation in mind, as if they were in this person’s situation. When the experiment was finished, participants were fully debriefed (that is, they were told that the experiment was about gossip), thanked and paid for participating in the experiment with money or research points.

Manipulation Checks

The achievement goal manipulation was checked by asking participants to indicate which specific goal had been assigned to them for the exercise, by summarizing their goal and by naming reasons why this goal is important. The gossip valence condition was checked by asking them to indicate whether the information the two group members discussed was positive or negative.

Measures

The participants filled in questions about their emotions, based on the PANAS Scale (Watson & Clark, 1994), which were measured on a seven point Likert scale (1, totally disagree; 7, totally agree). The measured emotions all had high reliabilities: joviality Cronbach's α = .98 (happy, joyful, cheerful, excited, enthusiastic, energetic), attentiveness Cronbach's α = .80 (alert, attentive, determined), pride Cronbach's α = .95 (proud, strong, confident, bold, daring, fearless) and guilt Cronbach's α = .97 (guilty, ashamed, blameworthy, angry at self, dissatisfied with self).

RESULTS

In this section an analysis will be made for the effects of gossip valance on emotions moderated by achievement goals. Achievement goals and gossip valence were the independent variables. The emotions joviality, attentiveness, pride and guilt were the dependent variables. Before conducting the analyses, all items for emotions were combined into one variable per emotion, by combining the values of the different items into one main value per emotion.

Both manipulation checks for gossip valence, F(1,225) = 3006.85, p = .00, ² = .93 and for

goal manipulation, F(2,225) = 519.45, p= .00, ² = .82 were significant. Therefore, the

11 Descriptive statistics and correlations of the dependent and independent variables are reported in Table 1. As can be seen, goals and gossip valence were not correlated (mastery r = .02, performance r = -.02). Additionally, mastery goals were not related to the measured emotions and close to zero: joviality r = .03 , attentiveness r = -.2, pride r = -.01 and guilt r = -.00. Performance goals were also not significantly related to the measured emotions: joviality r = -.03, attentiveness r = .06, pride r = .06 and guilt r = -.03. So there was no direct result of goals on the measured emotions. Gossip valence was highly correlated with joviality (r = .89, p < .01), pride (r = .79, p < .01) and guilt (r = -.79, p < .01), except for attentiveness (r = -.07). The different means for the emotions indicate that the positive emotions joviality (M = 3.82,

SD = 2.15), attentiveness (M = 4.90, SD = 1.16) and pride (M = 3.81, SD = 1.83) were higher

than the negative emotion guilt (M = 2.86, SD = 1.93).

TABLE 1

Means, standard deviations, and correlations

Variable Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Gossip valence .03 1.00 2. Goal - Mastery .35 .48 .02 3. Goal - Performance .34 .47 -.02 -.52** 4. Joviality 3.82 2.15 .89** .03 -.03 5. Attentiveness 4.90 1.16 -.07 -.2 .06 .03 6. Pride 3.81 1.83 .79** -.01 .06 .85** .13 7. Guilt 2.86 1.93 -.79** -.00 -.03 -.76** .05 -.76** N = 227, **p < 0.01 Tests of hypotheses

Joviality. Hypothesis 3a predicted that people with mastery goals who receive positive gossip about themselves will feel more joviality as compared to people with performance goals who receive positive gossip. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a 3 (Achievement goal: Mastery vs. Performance vs. Control condition) × 2 (Valence of gossip: Positive vs. Negative) ANOVA with joviality as a dependent variable. The main effects of goals, F(2,225) = 0.03, p = .97, ² = .44 and interaction effects, F(2,225) = .95, p = .39, ² = .44 were not

significant, which indicates that the model does not hold. Therefore, for the emotion joviality Hypotheses 2 and Hypothesis 3a were not supported.

The main effect of valence, F(1,225) = 868.89, p = .00, ² = .44 was significant, which

indicates that the valence of gossip affects the emotions people feel, such that joviality is higher with positive gossip (M = 5.70, SD =1.01) as compared to negative gossip (M = 1.86,

SD = .93). This supports Hypothesis 1 for the emotion joviality.

12 .04, valence, F(1,225) = 1.03, p = .31, ² = .04 and the interaction effect, F(2,225) = 2.00, p =

.14, ² = .04 were not significant, indicating that these variables have no influence on

attentiveness. Therefore, for the emotion attentiveness neither Hypothesis 1, Hypothesis 2 nor Hypothesis 3b were supported.

Pride. Hypothesis 4a predicted that people with performance goals who receive positive gossip about themselves will feel more pride as compared to people with mastery goals who receive positive gossip. A 3 x 2 ANOVA was performed with pride as a dependent variable. The main effect of goals, F(2,225) = 2.02, p = .14, ² = .34 and the interaction

effect, F(2,225) = .15, p = .86, ² = .34 were not significant. This indicates that achievement

goals have no influence on pride and there is no moderation effect of goals either. Therefore, for the emotion pride Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 4a were not supported.

The main effect of valence was significant, F(1,225) = 368.29, p = .00, ² = .34, which

indicates that the valence of gossip affects the emotions people feel, such that pride is higher with positive gossip (M = 5.20, SD = .97) as compared to negative gossip (M = 2.32, SD = 1.27). This supports Hypothesis 1 for the emotion pride.

Guilt. Hypothesis 4b predicted that people with performance goals who receive negative gossip about themselves will feel more guilt as compared to people with mastery goals who receive negative gossip. A 3 x 2 ANOVA was performed with guilt as a dependent variable. The main effect of goals, F(2,224) = .49, p = .62, ² = .44 and the interaction effect, F(2,224) = 2.15, p = .12, ² = .44 were not significant. This indicates that achievement goals

have no influence on guilt and there is no moderation effect of goals either. Therefore, for the emotion guilt Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 4b were not supported.

The main effect of valence was significant, F(1,224) = 369.21, p = .00, ² = .44, which

indicates that the valence of gossip affects the emotions people feel, such that guilt is lower with positive gossip (M = 1.37, SD = .70) as compared to negative gossip (M = 4.41, SD = 1.54). This supports Hypothesis 1 for the emotion guilt.

To conclude, Hypothesis 1 predicted that positive gossip would lead to higher levels of positive emotions (such as joviality, attentiveness and pride) and lower levels of negative emotions (such as guilt) as compared to negative gossip. For the emotions joviality, pride and guilt significant results were found, indicating that gossip valence influences these emotions. This was not the case for attentiveness, the results were not significant and therefore gossip valence does not influence attentiveness. The positive emotions joviality, attentiveness and pride had high results for positive gossip and low results for negative gossip. Additionally, positive gossip resulted in lower levels of the negative emotion guilt. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was supported.

13 Hypothesis 3a, 3b, 4a and 4b predicted specific emotions to have higher levels for positive or negative gossip and for mastery or performance goals. There was no interaction effect found in these cases, indicating that achievement goals do not moderate the relationship between gossip valence and the emotions joviality, attentiveness, pride and guilt.

DISCUSSION

The aim of this study was to investigate what the effect is of gossip valence and achievement goals on emotional reactions of gossip objects. We firstly hypothesized that gossip valence would lead to higher levels of positive emotions and lower levels of negative emotions. This relation was proven significant with correlations and ANOVAs, indicating that positive gossip leads to higher levels of positive emotions such as joviality and pride and to lower levels of the negative emotion guilt. The other way around, negative gossip leads to lower levels of positive emotions and higher levels of negative emotions. Therefore, gossip valence has a direct relationship on the mentioned emotions and there is a large difference between positive and negative gossip. Positive gossip leads to positive emotions for the gossip object and negative gossip leads to negative emotions. Moreover, for the emotion attentiveness no significance was found, but the mean of attentiveness was high for both positive and negative gossip, which could indicate that people are attentive of gossip regardless of whether this is positive or negative.

With regard to the second hypothesis we expected that mastery goals would lead to higher levels of positive emotions than performance goals. This relationship proved not to be significant for any of the emotions used in this study and therefore we cannot conclude that achievement goals have an effect on emotions in this situation. This contradicts the expectations of this research and existing literature, where a person’s achievement goals are thought to be a promising set of antecedents for emotions (Dweck, 1986; Elliot, 1997; Nicholls, 1984). Therefore, achievement goals might not be very closely related to emotions as we thought. This could be explained by the way that achievement goals were measured. Additionally, there was no moderation effect found by achievement goals on the relationship between gossip valence and emotions. A potential explanation for this could be that in the relationship between gossip and emotions there is such a strong connection that achievement goals have little influence on this relationship. Contrary to the existing literature, the fact that no moderation effect was found indicates that the emotions of the object are not influenced by their achievement goal if they overhear gossip.

To conclude, we did not find support for the hypothesis that achievement goals moderate the relationship between gossip valence and emotions. Achievement goals also have no direct relationship to emotions. However, the relationship between gossip valence and the emotions joviality, pride and guilt is strong, indicating that gossip valence has a large influence on how people feel upon receiving gossip. Respondents were attentive to gossip regardless of the valance of gossip.

14 We concluded that gossip valence has an important influence on emotions, which are important for motivation and influence work behaviors. One the one hand, it is important for organizations to have mainly positive gossip, this way positive emotions will be evoked and employees will be more positive and more motivated to work. Gossip should not be countered, it should be guided into right practices by practicing open communication and by acknowledging gossip (Houmanfar, 2008). It is important to have gossip in all organizations and environments as long as a healthy level of gossip is maintained. One the other hand, people are likely to experience negative emotions from negative gossip, which could lead to behavior that influences work negatively. This is something organizations want to prevent from happening. Therefore it can be concluded that gossip is prevalent: positive gossip can be helpful in the organization but negative gossip to a lesser extent.

Limitations. When interpreting the results of this research, a number of limitations have to be kept in mind. Firstly, the achievement goals of the participants were manipulated and randomly assigned, so one dominant achievement goal would be pursued. However, his could mean that their own achievement goal differed from the assigned achievement goal and people considered their personal goal as well in the experimental setting. This could have had an influence on the emotional reactions, if people consider their personal goals as well. Furthermore, because participants had to imagine the provided situation it is possible that some people had more difficulty with this than others and therefore emotional reactions might not be as comparable to a real life situation with gossip. For future research, another way of measuring gossip with peoples own achievement goals might provide better results, with for example real life situations or experiences.

Secondly, the context of the experiment has to be kept in mind as well. This experiment took place in a university context with mainly young students with an economics and business background. Therefore, this sample might not be generalizable. Future studies could include a more diverse sample to improve generalizability. Additionally, gossip is difficult to measure in real life situations. Therefore we had to simulate a situation in which people had to imagine the gossip, which might have influenced the emotions of the respondents because they could relate to it less.

Finally, because there was little research about the gossip object, several assumptions had to be made. Related literature was used for example feedback literature to infer assumptions about the reactions of the gossip object. Furthermore, we confined the research to mastery and performance goals only, not taking the approach and avoidance literature into account. Further research could include these distinctions as well. What could also be included in future research are possible actions objects of gossip may take resulting from overhearing gossip, for example retributions or revenge. Additionally, other emotional reactions could be included for further research to discover whether the same results holds for these emotions.

CONCLUSION

15 relation between achievement goals and these emotions and achievement goals did not moderate the relationship between gossip valence and emotions either. Therefore we conclude it is important to practice open communication in organizations to facilitate healthy levels of primarily positive gossip.

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