GOSSIP!!!

The Visual Impact of Gossip.
Anderson E, Siegel EH, Bliss-Moreau E, Barrett LF.

Gossip is a form of affective information about who is friend and who is foe. We show that gossip does not impact only how a face is evaluated-it affects whether a face is seen in the first place. In two experiments, neutral faces were paired with negative, positive, or neutral gossip and were then presented alone in a binocular rivalry paradigm (faces were presented to one eye, houses to the other). In both studies, faces previously paired with negative (but not positive or neutral) gossip dominated longer in visual consciousness. These findings demonstrate that gossip, as a potent form of social affective learning, can influence vision in a completely top-down manner, independent of the basic structural features of a face.

Science. 2011 May 19. [Epub ahead of print]

Why is this is cool?

 This is so cool that I can barely contain my excitement! I think the abstract sums up their work really well, but here is a brief re-cap of the main point: gossip about something affects how you see that something! Negative gossip makes you visually aware of the thing gossiped about! 

 I see this has having huge ramifications for education. The authors suggest the same and I think it would be interesting to explore thoughtspace on this issue. It seems to fit with that age old idiom "you learn more from mistakes than from successes." That is if you generalize a mistake to be an input of negative information on a topic. So, having this knowledge what would be the best way to teach? 

 Maybe instead of talking about the achievements that Richard Nixon had, an elementary school teacher would discuss the many failures of Nixon? The idea being that knowing his failures would increase knowledge retention.

 What about a PE teacher who makes sure to evenly split up the class so that adept athletes can not pick other adept athletes and, thus, increases the randomness of the game and the chances that each student will learn from losing instead of just the shrimpy kids who get annihilated?

 Is it possible that knowing only successes does not increase consciousness on a topic? Am I so far off? I should read the paper and see what they say. 

 Are there other things besides education that could be affected by this? Could this explain politics in some way? No, matter how well intentioned and skillful a politician may be, a negative comment will have a more lasting impact?