Not all workplace gossip is equal: A moral-emotions perspective on how gossip type shapes recipients’ reactions to gossipers

Existing research has presented mixed perspectives and evidence on how gossip recipients react to gossipers. Our work reconciles these discrepancies by proposing that the answer depends on the type of workplace gossip the recipient receives and the moral emotion each type generates. Building on Lee and Barnes’ (2021) typology—which distinguishes between two types of negative gossip (i.e., derogation-based and protection-based) and two types of positive gossip (i.e., endorsement-based and communion-based)—and drawing on moral emotion theory, we argue that the four types of workplace gossip lead recipients to exhibit divergent responses toward the gossiper by eliciting different moral emotions. Specifically, we hypothesize that derogation-based gossip leads to avoidant behavior through moral disgust, protection-based gossip leads to helping behavior through gratitude, endorsement-based gossip leads to endorsement emulation through moral elevation, and communion-based gossip leads to socializing behavior through companionate love. To test these hypotheses, we first developed measures following a pre-registered procedure to capture the receipt of the four types of workplace gossip with three separate samples of employees. We then conducted three pre-registered studies using complementary methods: a multi-wave survey study, a recall-based experiment, and a scenario-based experiment. The results fully supported our hypotheses. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.