As every teen girl knows well, you cannot gossip with just anyone. Gossip requires a kind of mutual vulnerability, an innate trust. When we gossip with someone, we bring them information in the hope that they will trust it, while knowing that they will judge us based on its quality and verifiability. Whisper networks, prosocial gossip, and gossiping in general about people directly connected to us enable us to create a web of information that can keep us safe. It can help us identify abusers, avoid people who are mean, and know which of our crushes doesn’t like us at all. Gossip can’t always
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