Despite the fact that most men cannot stand women’s gossip, women may be onto something with their gossiping as a new research study shows that gossip can be good for health according to the study published in the medical journal Hormones and Behavior conducted by Professor Stephanie Brown and other international colleagues with a grant from the US National Institutes of Health.
The research studied the level of the hormone progesterone and how it levels between control groups of women who were encouraged to share personal information with each other versus women who did not socialize.
The study showed that women who were encouraged to socialize had an increase in progesterone while the other group remained consistent. Although the activity in question was not directly gossip, the fact remains that socializing women showed an increase.
Progesterone is a female hormone that the ovaries produce which allows women to have better interpersonal relationships.
Past research has shown that women who are on birth control pills often have higher progesterone and thus are more motivated to bond compared to women who are not on contraceptive.
Scientists hope that by studying alternate ways that progesterone increases will help them to understand the behavioral patterns of women better.
The study included a total of 160 female students split into 80 pairs of women who already were familiar with each before entering the study room.
Half the pairs were given a subset of questions to answer that would inspire conversation about personal concerns while half were assigned an editing assignment that was academic in nature.
The volunteers had their saliva tested and after which point the first group showed higher levels of the hormone after talking amongst each other.
Yay… so now I don’t feel so bad about all the gossiping i’ve done over the years!