Research on women's competition, indirect aggression, and gossip has uncovered a perplexing
pattern: women deny their own competitiveness and gossip, but openly acknowledge that of
other women. The current investigation proposed one solution to this paradox: women's
unawareness of their competitive and malicious motivations grants a competitive advantage in
female intrasexual reputation competition. Gossipers who express concern for their targets can
preserve their own social desirability while simultaneously transmitting information that harms
their target's reputation. Two online studies tested this theory by examining the prevalence and
efficacy of concern motivations within gossip. Study 1 tested the prediction that women would
assert greater concern relative to malicious motivations for gossiping by comparing male and
female participants' perceptions of their own and others' social conversation motivations.
Indeed, compared to men, women endorsed stronger concern motivations and lower reputationharming
motivations when gossiping. Moreover, women were especially likely to assert
benevolent intentions when discussing same-sex peers compared to men, suggesting these
motivations characterize women's gossip about same-sex rivals. Study 2 tested the competitive
efficacy of ostensible concern motivations. Male and female participants evaluated female
gossipers and their targets across three hypothetical gossip scenarios. The framing of the
gossiper's statement was experimentally manipulated such that she delivered her information
with concern, with malice, or neutrally. Consistent with predictions, gossip delivered with
concern enhanced perceptions of the gossiper's trustworthiness, interpersonal desirability, and
romantic desirability compared to gossip delivered neutrally or maliciously. Taken together,
these findings suggest women's belief in their prosocial motivations for gossiping is a socially
advantageous strategy for female intrasexual reputation competition.
