Couples who bond over this nasty habit are happier, study reveals: ‘Partners are on the same team'
A new study from UC Riverside, titled 'Spill the Tea, Honey: Gossiping Predicts Well-Being in Same- and Different-Gender Couples,' revealed that couples who gossip together are not only bonded more deeply but also happier and more satisfied in their romance.
4 Gossiping with your partner can benefit your relationship, experts say.
alfa27 – stock.adobe.com
'Whether or not we want to admit it, everyone gossips,' Chandler Spahr, first author of the study, told UC Riverside. 'Gossip is ubiquitous.'
And that might not be such a bad thing.
A team of researchers tracked 76 romantic couples — both same-gender and different-gender — using a portable listening device called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR).
This device passively recorded snippets of daily conversation.
However, it is worth noting that the device captured only about 14% of participants' daily speech, and all the couples recorded were from Southern California.
According to the results, participants gossiped for an average of 38 minutes per day — with nearly 29 of those minutes spent gossiping with their partner.
4 'Whether or not we want to admit it, everyone gossips,' Chandler Spahr, first author of the study, told UC Riverside. 'Gossip is ubiquitous.'
Wisky – stock.adobe.com
And everyone was better off for it.
Across the board, couples who gossiped more frequently reported higher levels of personal happiness. Gossip was also linked to better relationship quality, although the effect was slightly less pronounced.
Same-sex couples overall reported higher well-being than their different-sex counterparts — especially woman-woman couples.
Senior author Megan Robbins explained that gossiping may function as a tool of emotional intimacy.
For example, she noted that often after leaving social gatherings together, couples will rehash what they learned from and thought of everybody else in the room.
This kind of post-event gossip — whether playfully catty or positively reflective — helps reinforce emotional alignment and feelings of closeness, trust and solidarity.
'Negatively gossiping with one's romantic partner on the way home from a party could signal that the couple's bond is stronger than with their friends at the party, while positively gossiping could prolong the fun experiences,' the study authors wrote.
4 According to the results, participants gossiped for an average of 38 minutes daily — with nearly 29 of those minutes spent gossiping with their partner.
Photographee.eu – stock.adobe.com
'It may reinforce the perception that partners are 'on the same team,' enhancing feelings of connectedness, trust and other positive relationship qualities, as well as contributing to overall well-being.'
This research builds on Robbins' earlier 2019 study, which debunked popular myths about gossip — like the belief that women gossip more maliciously or that poorer people gossip more often.
That study found the truth to be more nuanced, suggesting gossip is neither inherently bad nor limited to any one demographic.
4 Across the board, couples who gossiped more frequently reported higher levels of personal happiness. Gossip was also linked to better relationship quality, although the effect was slightly less pronounced.
Svyatoslav Lypynskyy – stock.adobe.com
Meanwhile, in the new study, researchers didn't distinguish between positive, negative or neutral gossip, proving that it's the act of sharing perspectives that counts.
So, if you're one of the many Americans who say they're too stressed about money to have sex, maybe try spilling some tea to feel connected to your partner.
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New York Post
7 days ago
- New York Post
Couples who bond over this nasty habit are happier, study reveals: ‘Partners are on the same team'
Did you hear? Couples that gossip together stay together. A new study from UC Riverside, titled 'Spill the Tea, Honey: Gossiping Predicts Well-Being in Same- and Different-Gender Couples,' revealed that couples who gossip together are not only bonded more deeply but also happier and more satisfied in their romance. 4 Gossiping with your partner can benefit your relationship, experts say. alfa27 – 'Whether or not we want to admit it, everyone gossips,' Chandler Spahr, first author of the study, told UC Riverside. 'Gossip is ubiquitous.' And that might not be such a bad thing. A team of researchers tracked 76 romantic couples — both same-gender and different-gender — using a portable listening device called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). This device passively recorded snippets of daily conversation. However, it is worth noting that the device captured only about 14% of participants' daily speech, and all the couples recorded were from Southern California. According to the results, participants gossiped for an average of 38 minutes per day — with nearly 29 of those minutes spent gossiping with their partner. 4 'Whether or not we want to admit it, everyone gossips,' Chandler Spahr, first author of the study, told UC Riverside. 'Gossip is ubiquitous.' Wisky – And everyone was better off for it. Across the board, couples who gossiped more frequently reported higher levels of personal happiness. Gossip was also linked to better relationship quality, although the effect was slightly less pronounced. Same-sex couples overall reported higher well-being than their different-sex counterparts — especially woman-woman couples. Senior author Megan Robbins explained that gossiping may function as a tool of emotional intimacy. For example, she noted that often after leaving social gatherings together, couples will rehash what they learned from and thought of everybody else in the room. This kind of post-event gossip — whether playfully catty or positively reflective — helps reinforce emotional alignment and feelings of closeness, trust and solidarity. 'Negatively gossiping with one's romantic partner on the way home from a party could signal that the couple's bond is stronger than with their friends at the party, while positively gossiping could prolong the fun experiences,' the study authors wrote. 4 According to the results, participants gossiped for an average of 38 minutes daily — with nearly 29 of those minutes spent gossiping with their partner. – 'It may reinforce the perception that partners are 'on the same team,' enhancing feelings of connectedness, trust and other positive relationship qualities, as well as contributing to overall well-being.' This research builds on Robbins' earlier 2019 study, which debunked popular myths about gossip — like the belief that women gossip more maliciously or that poorer people gossip more often. That study found the truth to be more nuanced, suggesting gossip is neither inherently bad nor limited to any one demographic. 4 Across the board, couples who gossiped more frequently reported higher levels of personal happiness. Gossip was also linked to better relationship quality, although the effect was slightly less pronounced. Svyatoslav Lypynskyy – Meanwhile, in the new study, researchers didn't distinguish between positive, negative or neutral gossip, proving that it's the act of sharing perspectives that counts. So, if you're one of the many Americans who say they're too stressed about money to have sex, maybe try spilling some tea to feel connected to your partner.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
Contributor: A defining look at Southern California
The most joyous years I've spent as a writer were in the company of photographer Douglas McCulloh, who died in January, a week after being diagnosed with cancer. McCulloh and I worked on books and essays about Southern California, and the joy was in long days spent driving countless miles looking for whatever surprises came our way — landscapes and people, the untold stories of Southern California. Doug always told me, 'I'm an atheist, but you always pray we'll find a great story, and your way seems to be working.' We drove down Agua Mansa Road in San Bernardino to photograph the grave of Antonio Trujillo — who once saved the life of Benjamin Wilson, later the mayor of Los Angeles — and found the headstones backdropped by warehouses and industry. We watched a young Peruvian shepherd safeguard ewes and lambs in Nuevo with the help of a huge white Alsatian sheephound who rose from the middle of his disguise in the flock to threaten coyotes. We spent days in the Coachella Valley, investigating its startling beauty and equally startling income inequity — at the Empire Polo grounds, at worker camps, in the fields where men and women bend to pick the food we eat and showed us, with pride, what it takes to grow watermelon: placing a clear plastic cup over every baby plant in row after row. As curator and interim director of UC Riverside's California Museum of Photography, McCulloh expanded on the themes of Southern California and beyond in dozens of shows — the prescient 'Facing Fire'; the groundbreaking 'Sight Unseen,' featuring the work of blind photographers; and 'The Great Picture,' the single largest printed photograph in history, made with five other photographers at a former military airplane hangar in Orange County. His own images are in numerous collections big (LACMA, the Huntington, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) and intimate. The Medina family, proprietors of Riverside's iconic Zacateca Cafe, keep his pictures of their original restaurant on display in their new space. Jose Medina, the first Latino elected to the Assembly from Riverside, decorated his office in Sacramento with a McCulloh election night photo. I keep his brilliant book "Chance Encounters: The L.A. Project," published in 1998, next to me on my desk as I write. It's the culmination of six years spent documenting people and their stories found in precise quarter-mile square locations chosen randomly from a grid map of Los Angeles County. Each photo and text comprise a narrative, beautifully put together, about a place that could only exist in Southern California. In each image I see his boundless curiosity, his gift for putting his subjects at ease, his eye for what defines my world, our world, in a way we shouldn't forget. Susan Straight's forthcoming novel is 'Sacrament.' Douglas McCulloh's final curated show, 'Lost in the Wilderness: Ansel Adams in the 1960s,' opens Saturday at the California Museum of Photography. If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
21-03-2025
- Los Angeles Times
A defining look at Southern California
The most joyous years I've spent as a writer were in the company of photographer Douglas McCulloh, who died in January, a week after being diagnosed with cancer. McCulloh and I worked on books and essays about Southern California, and the joy was in long days spent driving countless miles looking for whatever surprises came our way — landscapes and people, the untold stories of Southern California. Doug always told me, 'I'm an atheist, but you always pray we'll find a great story, and your way seems to be working.' We drove down Agua Mansa Road in San Bernardino to photograph the grave of Antonio Trujillo — who once saved the life of Benjamin Wilson, later the mayor of Los Angeles — and found the headstones backdropped by warehouses and industry. We watched a young Peruvian shepherd safeguard ewes and lambs in Nuevo with the help of a huge white Alsatian sheephound who rose from the middle of his disguise in the flock to threaten coyotes. We spent days in the Coachella Valley, investigating its startling beauty and equally startling income inequity — at the Empire Polo grounds, at worker camps, in the fields where men and women bend to pick the food we eat and showed us, with pride, what it takes to grow watermelon: placing a clear plastic cup over every baby plant in row after row. As curator and interim director of UC Riverside's California Museum of Photography, McCulloh expanded on the themes of Southern California and beyond in dozens of shows — the prescient 'Facing Fire'; the groundbreaking 'Sight Unseen,' featuring the work of blind photographers; and 'The Great Picture,' the single largest printed photograph in history, made with five other photographers at a former military airplane hangar in Orange County. His own images are in numerous collections big (LACMA, the Huntington, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) and intimate. The Medina family, proprietors of Riverside's iconic Zacateca Cafe, keep his pictures of their original restaurant on display in their new space. Jose Medina, the first Latino elected to the Assembly from Riverside, decorated his office in Sacramento with a McCulloh election night photo. I keep his brilliant book 'Chance Encounters: The L.A. Project,' published in 1998, next to me on my desk as I write. It's the culmination of six years spent documenting people and their stories found in precise quarter-mile square locations chosen randomly from a grid map of Los Angeles County. Each photo and text comprise a narrative, beautifully put together, about a place that could only exist in Southern California. In each image I see his boundless curiosity, his gift for putting his subjects at ease, his eye for what defines my world, our world, in a way we shouldn't forget. Susan Straight's forthcoming novel is 'Sacrament.' Douglas McCulloh's final curated show, 'Lost in the Wilderness: Ansel Adams in the 1960s,' opens Saturday at the California Museum of Photography.
