A recent study published in Evolutionary Psychological Science investigated why physically attractive women often become the targets of negative gossip, a phenomenon highlighted by the treatment of the character Malèna in the film of the same name. Previous research suggested that this gossip stems from intrasexual competition—women competing for desirable partners. In this work, Yijia Dong and colleagues go further by examining how romantic jealousy and self-esteem play roles in this behavior, proposing that jealousy drives women to gossip about attractive rivals, while self-esteem levels moderate this tendency.
Evolutionary psychology provides a framework for understanding these phenomena, suggesting that the psychological mechanisms developed to solve the adaptive problems of survival and reproduction influence mate preferences. Men’s preference for physical attractiveness in women, seen as an indicator of health and fertility, has led to a competitive environment where women use gossip as a strategy to undermine rivals.
Forty adults participated in the pilot study to evaluate the physical attractiveness of female faces, for the purpose of selecting stimuli for the main study. Images of Asian women were judged on a scale from 1 (extremely unattractive) to 10 (extremely attractive). Female participants rated the images both from their own perspective and as they imagined a man would, while male participants rated only from their own perspective.
This process utilized images from previous research, dividing them into attractive and unattractive categories. The ratings led to the selection of the three least and three most attractive faces, as agreed upon by both male and female raters, to be used in the target study.
A total of 190 heterosexual female participants aged 23 to 35 years participated in the target study. Participants were randomly assigned to groups where they were exposed to images of women categorized as either high or low in attractiveness, based on the pilot study’s findings.
Participants first rated their own physical attractiveness on a 7-point scale. They were then introduced to a hypothetical scenario in which participants imagined themselves as a woman in a social group with a target man and a new woman (Woman Y) entering this group and getting close to the target man. Participants rated their jealousy on a 7-point scale, after which they were presented with negative information about Woman Y and asked to rate the likelihood of sharing this information in various social contexts.
Participants also completed measures of self-esteem via the Rosenberg’s 10-item scale, and social desirability using items from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.
The researchers found no significant main effect of a potential competitor’s physical attractiveness on gossip tendencies. However, a significant main effect emerged for the receiver of the gossip, indicating that participants were more likely to spread negative information about a competitor to their own friends than to the target man or a common friend. While the physical attractiveness of potential competitors did not affect gossip tendencies toward the target man or common friend, it did influence gossip toward the participant’s own friends.
Participants with lower self-esteem were marginally more likely to gossip, particularly when the competitors were highly attractive.
The physical attractiveness of potential competitors was positively associated with participants’ levels of romantic jealousy, which in turn was linked to increased gossip tendencies across all receivers. This mediation effect was significant, underscoring romantic jealousy as a key mechanism driving gossip in response to attractive competitors.
Additionally, self-esteem moderated these effects, with lower self-esteem amplifying the impact of competitors’ attractiveness on jealousy and gossip, particularly towards personal friends. These findings illustrate that while attractiveness and jealousy spur gossip, the extent of this behavior is further shaped by individual differences in self-esteem.
The researchers note that future research should consider using implicit measures of social desirability.
The study, “Physical Attractiveness of Potential Competitors Influences Women’s Gossip: Effects of Romantic Jealousy and Self‑Esteem”, was authored by Yijia Dong, Wenqi Li, and Yu Kou.
