A Taxonomy of Non-verbal Responses to Gossip

Abstract

Gossip is the exchange of socially relevant information. Sending and receiving gossip is a communicative process that involves evaluation of the information by the sender and receiver, with the receiver signalling their response by facial expressions or acoustic social signals. Responses to gossip may be positive or negative. Positive responses may be visual or acoustic, and negative responses may be indifferent or neutral. Here we will present a preliminary development of a taxonomy of the types of facial and acoustic responses displayed when an individual receives gossip information. This research will be developed to encompass a wider variety of  social interaction and conversation events.