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Study: People view others differently after hearing negative gossip

By Staff Writer

A recent study by Northeastern University and the University of California, Davis shows that the brain spends a longer time processing the faces of people who are associated with negative gossip, the Boston Globe reports.

During the study of 66 college students, participants were shown photos, each with a positive, negative or neutral comment associated with it. Researchers had the individuals look through a viewfinder that let them see a house through one eye and a face through another.

When the brain was processing images of a house and a face with a positive or a neutral association, it was able to equally switch between the two images. However, when the brain interpreted photos of the house and a negative face, it stayed on the bad image for 12 percent longer than the house.

Lisa Barrett, coauthor of the study, told the news outlet that the results show that negative gossip changes the way in which people see that person visually, making gossip a very powerful tool.

According to the Center for Disease Control, gossip and other forms of bullying affect 30 percent of teens. If parents believe that their children are being bullied, they may want to consider enrolling them in therapeutic schools.

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