Almost everyone gossips. And a new study finds that people spend about 52 minutes per day, on average, talking to someone about someone else who is not present.

But here’s the surprise: Despite the assumption that most gossip is trash talk, the study finds that the vast majority of gossip is non-judgmental chitchat.

“People love to talk about other people,” says Jeremy Cone, a psychologist at Williams College. “Think about your own conversations with a family member or friend: You talk about everyday things that keep you connected. You share that your daughter got her driver’s license or your uncle has a kidney stone. Much of it is just documenting facts.”

And, of course, the study also finds that some gossip is negative or mean-spirited. About 15% of the snippets of gossip that the researchers analyzed included some types of negative judgements.

But even negative gossip can serve a purpose, as more research has found.

“I think gossiping can be a smart thing to do,” says Elena Martinescu, a researcher at King’s College London who has studied gossip in the workplace. “It allows people to keep track of what’s going on and form social alliances with other people.”

Research has shown that gossip can help build group cohesion and cooperation. “When you gossip, you can keep track of who is contributing to the group and who’s being selfish,” Martinescu explains. “And by sharing this information, you can exclude those group members who are social loafers.”

“We also found that negative gossip makes people likely to repair the aspects of their behavior that they were criticized for,” Martinescu says.

So, say, for instance, you were criticized for always arriving at work late. Hearing that gossip about yourself may motivate you to want to be on time.

Of course, this isn’t a license to be a loose lips or to repeat baseless claims that can damage someone’s reputation unfairly. But confiding（吐露个人隐私）in your friends and colleagues and sharing impressions about another person—even when they’re negative—may be helpful.

Cooperation at work is generally considered a good thing.The latest survey by the Financial Times of what employers need from MBA graduates found that the ability to cope with a wide variety of people was what managers have wanted most.However,managers always find ways to balance the benefits of teamwork, which helps ensure that everyone is working towards the same goal.With the dangers of “groupthink”,critics are reluctant to point out a plan 's drawbacks for fear of being excluded by the group.The disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961 was a classic case of groupthink.Skeptics were unwilling to challenge John F.Kennedy, the newly elected American president.

Modern communication methods prove that cooperation is more frequent.Workers are constantly in touch with each other via e-mail messaging groups or mobile calls .However, does that develop, or lower performance? A new study by three American academics, tried to answer this question They set a logical problem( designing the shortest route for a travelling salesman visiting various cities ) Three groups were involved: one where subjects acted independently; another where they saw the solutions posted by team members at every stage; and a third where they were kept informed of each other' s views only intermittently.

The survey found that members of the: individualist group.reached the: premier solution more often than the constant cooperators but had a poorer average result The intermittent cooperators found the right result.as often as the individualists, and got a better average, solution.When it comes: to: perfect generation, giving: people a, bit of space to, a solution seems to be a great idea.Occasional cooperation can.be quite beneficial: most people have benefited from a colleague’s brainwave or (just as often)wise advice to avoid a, particular course of action.

Further clues come from.a book, Superminds, by.Thomas, Malone of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He says that three factors determine the collective intelligence of cooperating groups: social intelligence (how good people were at rating the emotional states of others); the extent to which members took part equally in conversation (the more equal, the better). and the cooperation of women in the group( the higher, the better Groups ranked highly in these areas cooperated far better than others did.

In short, cooperation may be a helpful tool but it does not work in every situation .

Awe (敬畏) is that feeling we get when something is so vast that it stops us in our tracks. Often, it expands our thinking, increases positive emotions and brings overall satisfaction in life. 【小题1】

Most of us associate awe with something rare and beautiful: nature, music or a spiritual experience. But people can trigger awe too, and not just famous people, such as athletes or astronauts. 【小题2】 Psychologists call this interpersonal awe.

Often, this interpersonal awe is a response to life’s big, sweeping charges, such as witnessing a baby’s first steps. For Lynn Heady, a retired educator, it’s watching a friend fight cancer and still embrace life. 【小题3】 John Bargh, a psychologist and professor, said he was truly awestruck by his then-5-year-old daughter. When she heard another child crying, she grabbed her toy, walked over toyer toy, walked over to the boy and handed it to him.

【小题4】But we can prepare ourselves to notice it when they do and take steps to boost the emotion’s positive effects. Here’s how:

Blurting (脱口而出) out “Wow, that was awesome!” is a simple way to help you identify and remember a special experience. 【小题5】 Another way is to thank the person who awed you. This makes the other person feel good and can give your relationship a boost. And it helps you too: Studies show that people who practice gratitude have significantly higher levels of happiness than those who don’t.