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I only skimmed this article. I think that gossip has a place in social regulation in that it allows us knowledge about who to trust and who to worry about. And also it keeps some of us from being complete dicks because the fear of everyone knowing what a shithead we are keeps us from doing shitty things.

Ya it's worthwhile to notice which friends are doing lots of negative gossiping and to avoid getting too deep with them, otherwise we're gonna be the next one to get dished on. My rule is to only negatively talk about someone if there's something that others need to be wary of, which is pretty infrequent. If I feel the need to tell that funny story of what a fuckhead X is, I'll just tell it to a totally different set of people and not mention any names.