But both schools have spent more time theorizing than observing gossipers in their natural habitats.
"We're all gossipers," said Judith Martin, a ka Miss Manners.
I have noticed three effects of gossip: it can hurt people, it can give gossipers a strange kind of satisfaction, and it can cause social pressures in a group.
The gossipers really are a bunch of old fogies!
One study of gossip showed that gossipers were concerned about women who are bad housekeepers, and women who are bad mothers, and women who are promiscuous.
