For centuries, gossip has been dismissed as salacious, idle chatter that can damage reputations and erode trust. But a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests rumor-mongering can have positive outcomes such as helping us police bad behavior, prevent exploitation and lower stress. “Gossip gets a bad rap, but we’re finding evidence that it plays a critical role in the maintenance of social order,” said UC Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer, a coauthor of the study published in this month’s online issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The study also found that gossip can be therapeutic.

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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, July 13 (UPI) — Gossip can be hurtful, unproductive and mean, but it can be an part of ensuring people will share and cooperate, researchers in the Netherlands say.

Bianca Beersma and Gerben Van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam tested whether the threat of gossip could suppress selfish behavior. They invited study participants into the laboratory and convinced them that they were part of a group that would interact first through computers and then face-to-face.

The participants were told they had been randomly chosen to distribute 100 tickets for a cash-prize lottery — they could be generous and distribute the tickets to group members, or be selfish and keep a large share of the tickets for themselves.

Half of the time, the study participant was told the choice would be private and none of the group would know how many tickets they took for themselves.

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