Unit VI

TEXT 1

GOSSIP

I. Read and translate the text.

Gossip is an idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others. It can also be used as an identifier only - as when gossiping about unreachable icons, like royalty or showbiz celebrities - useful only to show the

gossiper belongs to the group of the informed ones. While most cases seem to share the characteristic of being primarily used to predict future behavior, they can have, for example, manipulative sub-goals, even more important than the forecast.

Gossip has been researched in terms of its evolutionary psychology origins. This has found gossip to be an important means by which people can monitor cooperative reputations and so maintain widespread indirect reciprocity. Indirect reciprocity is defined here as " I help you and somebody else helps me." Gossip has also been identified by Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary biologist, as aiding social bonding in large groups.

Considering, for example, the case of a communication between two parties, one (the advisee) that is requesting advice about the potential for danger in a financial transaction with another party (the potential partner, target), and the other (the adviser, evaluator) that is giving advice.

Roughly speaking, the advice could fall under one of the following three categories:

- the adviser declares it believes the potential partner is (is not) good for the transaction in object;

- the adviser declares it believes another (named or otherwise defined) agent or set of agents believes the potential partner is (is not) good for the transaction in object;

- the adviser declares it believes in an undefined set of agents, hence there is a belief the potential partner is (is not) good for the transaction in object.

Note the care to maintain the possible levels of truth (the adviser declares - but could be lying - it believes - but could be wrong - etc.). The cases are listed, as it is evident, in decreasing order of responsibility. While one could feel most actual examples fall under the first case, the other two are not unnecessarily complicated nor actually infrequent. Indeed, most of the common gossip falls under the third category, and, except for electronic interaction, this is the most frequent form of referral. All examples concern the evaluation of a given object (target), a social agent (which may be either individual or supra-individual, and in the latter case, either a group or a collective), held by another social agent, the evaluator.

Unit VI Gossip________________________________________________________________

II. Read and memorize the following words:

advisee (a person who meets with an adviser) – консультируемый; получаю -

щий совет

adviser – советник, консультант

affairs – дела

belief – вера, убеждение

belong v. - принадлежать

bonding – связи, узы

care – забота, внимание

complicated – сложный, запутанный

evaluator – оценщик

forecast – прогноз, предсказание

gossip – сплетни

idle – праздный, пустой, неосновательный

latter - последний

maintain v. – поддерживать, сохранять

otherwise - в противном случае

party – участник, сторона

responsibility – ответственность, обязанности

roughly - грубо

rumor –слух, молва

showbiz celebrities –знаменитости шоу-бизнеса

talk - слух

truth – правда, истина

widespread – широко распространенный