Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This theoretical article examines the moral disqualification of gossip and rumor as a communication problem. Drawing on an integrative review of literature in evolutionary psychology, sociology, feminist history, and social epistemology, it argues that these practices work as relational infrastructure: they scale bonds, transmit norms, and circulate reputational information. The article also shows that their operation is ambivalent: it may reinforce belonging and cooperation, but it can also discipline, stigmatize, and reproduce asymmetries of power. Its main contribution is to propose a social epistemology of gossip and to introduce the contemplative gossiper as a minimal normative figure for distinguishing punitive circulation from relational understanding.
Source: Signo y Pensamiento
Author: Néstor Fernando De León Llanos
Institution: Politécnico de la Costa Atlántica
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7214101455