YouTuber 'Mr. Beast' brings virtual restaurant to CT
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - SEPTEMBER 04: (L-R) Nolan Hansen, Sapnap, MrBeast, Karl Jacobs and Punz attend as Global YouTube star MrBeast launches the first physical MrBeast Burger Restaurant at American Dream on September 4, 2022 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for MrBeast Burger)
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for MrBeast Burger
Mr. Beast, a content creator on Youtube with over 100 million subscribers, has teamed up with the company, “Virtual Dining Endeavors” to bring his virtual restaurant brand, Mr. Beast Burger, to multiple locations throughout Connecticut.
The virtual restaurant has established itself statewide, with a total of 19 locations in Connecticut: Avon, Bristol, Danbury, Darien, East Hartford, Enfield, Fairfield, Farmington, Glastonbury, Greenwich, New Britain, Newington, North Haven, Norwich, Orange, Rocky Hill, Southington, Vernon and Waterbury.
Gossip isn't always a bad thing. In a blog post, author, social science researcher, and workplace consultant Karla McLaren M.E.d. says that gossip can build empathy by helping you connect to others, understand human connections, identify your social position, and help set social rules. McLaren describes gossip as a "powerful thing." When people are gossiping, whether about themselves or others, they can learn from the experiences they're discussing. McLaren says you can use gossip in an ethical way when you are not doing it to harm others. She adds that you can use it as a tool to make some change in your life.
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Reports of a “screaming match” between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh on the set of “Don’t Worry Darling” are “absurd gossip,” according to a Sunday statement signed by 40 crew members.
“As a crew, we’ve avoided addressing the absurd gossip surrounding the movie we’re so proud of, but feel the need to correct the anonymous ‘sources’ quoted in a recent article,” reads the statement obtained by TheWrap. “There was never a screaming match between our director and anyone, let alone a member of our cast.”
The statement follows a Friday report from Vulture in which an anonymous source recalled a “screaming match” between Wilde and Pugh. The report said then-studio head Toby Emmerich had to intervene and moderate a “long negotiation process” to ensure that Pugh would participate in the movie’s press promotion and “not jeopardize the potential box office.”
Warner Bros. Pictures co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy denied the allegation in a statement Friday, saying “Any suggestion of conflict between the studio and Olivia is simply not true,” adding that the studio “look[s] forward to collaborating with her again.”
The statement goes on to say that “any allegations about unprofessional behavior on the set of Don’t Worry Darling are completely false,” adding that “Olivia is an incredible leader and director who was present with and involved in every aspect of production. She ran this set with class and respect for everyone involved.”
The statement is signed by co-writer and producer Katie Silberman, executive producer Alex G. Scott, art director Erika Toth, director of photography Matthew Libatique as well as additional below-the-line crew members.
Representatives for the crew of “Don’t Worry Darling” did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
“We are happy to put our names on this, as real people who worked on the film, and who have witnessed and benefitted from the collaborative and safe space Olivia creates as a director and leader,” the letter continued. “We’re also thrilled that the movie is in theaters this weekend. We can’t wait for you to see it on the big screen.”
Below is the full list of crew members who signed the statement:
Chris Baugh, location manager
Josh Bramer, property master
Katie Byron, production designer
Matthew Libatique, director of photography
Steve Morrow, sound mixer
Arianne Phillips, costume designer
Alex G. Scott, executive producer
Katie Silberman, writer/producer
Heba Thorisdottir, makeup department head
Eliana Alcouloumre, production assistant
Mary Florence Brown, art director
Monica Chamberlain, assistant costume designer
Conrad Curtis, second second assistant director
Raphael Di Febo, assistant property master
Rachael Ferrara, set decorator
Jake Ferrero, lighting technician
Jeff Ferrero, gaffer
Zach Gulla, set dresser
Yani Gutierrez, production assistant
It’s been a while since we’ve had a film production and subsequent press tour as juicy and awkward as what’s gonedown with Don’t Worry Darling. How did a stylish little thriller starring Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, and Chris Pine become…this? Starting with Shia LaBeouf being replaced by Styles early in production, followed by rumors of an on-set relationship between Styles and director Olivia Wilde, through Wilde being served with custody papers regarding her ongoing separation from Jason Sudeikis while on stage at CinemaCon, to further rumors of on-set tension between Wilde and Pugh. Leaked texts! “Miss Flo”! Conspicuous silence on Instagram! All of which culminated in a Venice world premiere featuring some of the most scrutinized body language of all time, and all of us sharing a mind-boggling collective moment wondering if a global pop superstar really did discreetly hock a loogie onto the lap of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. (He didn’t.)
The Don’t Worry Darling drama is by no means unprecedented. The scandal-plagued film production is a phenomenon as old as the film industry itself, and one that comes with its own set of expectations. Depending on who’s talking, messy press tours like this have been said to be harbingers of catastrophic failure at the box office and “no such thing as bad press” free publicity. A quick tour through some of Hollywood’s most notoriously fascinating productions tells us that both—or neither!—can be true.
Perhaps the most notorious scandal-plagued movie set in history was 1963’s Cleopatra, which nearly ruined 20th Century Fox with its runaway budget, and melted down the rumor mill with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s on-set affair, which ended both of their marriages. As Vanity Fair put it in a 1998 retrospective, “Never before had celebrity scandal pushed so far into global consciousness, with Taylor-Burton preempting John Glenn’s orbiting of the Earth on tabloid front pages, denunciations being sounded on the Senate floor, and even the Vatican newspaper publishing an ‘open letter’ that excoriated Taylor for ‘erotic vagrancy.’” Just sit with that for a moment.
But as much as Cleopatra became shorthand for a runaway production whose toxic press coverage presaged a box-office bomb, the truth is that—while it still ended up losing money due to its astronomical-for-the-time $44 million budget—Cleopatra actually performed at the box office. It was the number one earner for 1963, and a year after it was released, it entered the top 10 grossers of all time. The public fascination (and papal finger wag) had paid off.
Take, also, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, whose movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith coincided with Pitt’s divorce from Jennifer Aniston. Pitt and Jolie stepped out as a couple only after the film premiered in June 2005. If you thought the public scrutiny ahead of the release would poison the box office, think again: Mr. & Mrs. Smithtopped the box office in its debut week and ultimately hauled in $487 million worldwide, putting it in the top 10 in the domestic box office for the year. It was, at the time, both Pitt and Jolie’s best box-office showing to date, and remains Pitt’s number-two film of all time, after World War Z.
Part of the reason why many were worried that rumors might sink Mr. & Mrs. Smith is that romance rumors were said to be the culprit behind the failure of another thriller a few years before. In Proof of Life,Meg Ryan seeks out kidnap-and-ransom expert Russell Crowe for help after her husband has been taken hostage in South America. During the film’s production, Ryan and Crowe began an affair as Ryan’s decade-long marriage to Dennis Quaid ended. There was much hand-wringing in the media at the time, though it was more for what this affair might mean for Ryan’s image as “America's sweetheart” after a string of successful rom-coms. In Entertainment Weekly,Gillian Flynn openly wondered whether a tryst with the “Richard Burtonish” Crowe would be good or bad for Proof of Life’s box office, and quoted no less a pop-culture luminary than Dr. Drew, who said he “had no interest in this film until I heard about all of this,” and predicted that audiences “will want to see if they can pick up on her falling in love with him on screen.”
Indeed, Kenneth Turan’s review in the Los Angeles Times outright said that watching for signs of real-life romance in Ryan and Crowe’s performances was far more compelling than the film itself. So, what was it, then? Did the scandal lead to Proof of Life’s middling box-office performance (it debuted in third place, behind the fourth weekend of Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the opening weekend of the Chris O’Donnell mountain-climbing flick Vertical Limit), or was the scandal the only reason anyone went to see it at all?
Oftentimes, perception is a more enduring metric than the numbers themselves. Tom Cruise’s 2005 press tour for Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds remains infamous not just for his appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show where he jumped on the couch, but also for his newly unrestrained eagerness to discuss and promote Scientology, epitomized by a Today show interview where he accused Matt Lauer of being “glib” on the subject of psychiatric medication.
Cruise’s antics were the subject of much consternation in the mid-aughts. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone blamed bad press for Mission: Impossible III disappointing at the box office—and had a hand in ending a production deal Cruise had with Paramount. More crucially, Spielberg himself appeared annoyed with Cruise for jeopardizing the War of the Worlds rollout. And yet that movie did incredibly well in the summer of 2005, topping $600 million worldwide and finishing in fourth place for all of 2005, behind a Star Wars movie, a Harry Potter movie, and the first Chronicles of Narnia. Sure, there have been bigger successes, but it’s safe to say Cruise’s press tour did more harm to the springs on the Oprah show’s couch than it did to War of the Worlds’ profits.
Which brings us back to Don’t Worry Darling and whether the rubbernecking about on-set friction and imagined movie-premiere spittle will torpedo its chances. History says it probably won’t. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, War of the Worlds, and Cleopatra all played out just as they would have without any whiff of controversy. As for Proof of Life, it was never going to compete with The Grinch over the kid-friendly winter holidays. The Don’t Worry Darling stories have been so scattershot and omnidirectional (as opposed to one direction?) that the overall narrative can’t be summed up simply. One thing is for sure: The movie is on America’s radar—for better, most likely, not worse.
When I was 13 years old, I was completely obsessed with everything related to the fashion world and New York City. If someone asked me what my dream job was, I’d confidently say that I wanted to be a fashion designer, even though I couldn’t (and still can’t) draw, and that I hoped to move to the city when I was older, far away from the suburban Florida town I was growing up in. So, when I first came across screencaps of Gossip Girl’s spoiled Manhattan socialites sitting on the steps of the MET on Tumblr, I immediately binged the series from start to finish. Gossip Girl fed into all of my outrageous dreams—I ate it all up, and continue to unashamedly do so. As a teen who couldn’t afford luxury goods or impromptu trips to Paris, the series was escapism at its absolute finest. It served as a portal for countless young adults to live vicariously through the filthy rich characters who arrived at school in private limos and wore Chanel and Dior as if it were something as basic and accessible as H&M.
Gossip Girl took the world by storm 15 years ago this month, running on The CW from 2007 to 2012. It followed the chaotic and glamorous lives of a group of elite Upper East Siders attending prep school, and the anonymous gossip blogger (perfectly voiced by Kristen Bell) who sought to report on and expose their every little move. At the center of it all were frenemies Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) and Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), lonely boy Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) and his innocent younger sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen), charming asshole Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), and dreamboat Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford).
One of the first shows I remember being deeply invested in, it was impossible not to get sucked into Gossip Girl’s opulent fantasy world that offered everything you could possibly want in a television show. For six glorious seasons, its core characters schemed, backstabbed, and got involved in countless scandals, from teacher-student relationships to Blair’s doomed marriage to a prince. There were juicy, unhinged plot lines like Chuck’s dad faking his death in Season 2 only to end up falling off a roof and dying in the final season, or Serena thinking she killed a man when they did cocaine. There were iconic holiday episodes, like Season 3’s “The Treasure of Serena Madre” that set a pivotal Thanksgiving gathering to Jason Derulo’s “Whatcha Say.” Featuring tracks from the likes of Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, Paramore, and The Kills, the soundtrack was arguably its strongest element, and it blessed us with live performances from Lady Gaga and Florence + the Machine. Gossip Girl was also never lacking in the guest star department, with Hilary Duff, Sebastian Stan, and Armie Hammer all having multi-episode arcs.
Based on the wildly popular YA series by Cecily von Ziegsar, Gossip Girl was, in a way, the East Coast sibling to creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s equally beloved series The OC, which ended the same year Gossip Girl arrived. It defined the CW during its infancy, establishing the network as a hub for teen television and making it possible for shows like The Vampire Diaries and Riverdale to thrive. It may have struggled with viewership ratings toward the start, but it didn’t take long for Gossip Girl to emerge as one of the most influential and unique teen series of the 2000s and early 2010s. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but every show that has attempted to emulate its essence has drastically fallen short. Gossip Girl managed to capture an extremely specific period of time but continues to be just as culturally relevant today, and it remains one of the last of its kind before teen TV shifted towards a more socially conscious perspective (think: The Fosters).
The series turned us into devoted shippers who absorbed fan fiction and Instagram edits regardless of how imperfect and downright unhealthy some couples were (I remain a Chuck and Blair shipper despite their well-documented toxicity). But its greatest relationship was the one between on-and-off besties Serena and Blair, who had genuinely sweet and supportive moments when they weren’t too busy sabotaging each other. All the drama aside, Gossip Girl was fully anchored by the friendship at its core, and every viewer wanted to have the S to their B (or vice versa).
The characters in Gossip Girl were nearly adults in everything but age: they were jet setters with closets equipped with stylish suits, stunning couture pieces, and drool-worthy designer bags as opposed to the basic jeans and sneakers teens typically wore in shows like Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill. While its fashion hasn’t aged the best, it convinced an entire generation of girls that headbands were the greatest accessory; if true trendsetter Blair Waldorf was wearing something, you had to own it too.
Part of what made Gossip Girl such a great show was that it was fully self-aware at how out of touch it was with reality. It never attempted to hide the fact that it was about outrageously wealthy people and the equally outrageous experiences they encountered as they floated through their privileged lives. It was so detached from reality that the Humphreys, who lived in a spacious Brooklyn loft, were considered poor. Nearly everything about Gossip Girl was superficial on the surface, but it also managed to excel at covering issues like suicide and substance abuse in a somewhat nuanced way that provided a window of relatability for more of its audience, and that’s what made it stand apart from the other teen shows that dominated television at the time.
Gossip Girl pushed boundaries—it was a fun and provocative soap full of explicit (but still PG-13) sex scenes, and the teens drank and did drugs just as much as the adults who came in and out of their lives. Rather than give into the controversy surrounding it from parents and critics, the series took advantage of the belief that children were being corrupted and refused to hold back. In 2008, New York City was famously plastered with raunchy ads featuring quotes from bad reviews that described the series as “A nasty piece of work,” “Every parent’s nightmare,” and “Very bad for you.” Gossip Girl’s strategy was to take the critiques of its first season and use them to push Gossip Girl as the most irresistible guilty pleasure possible, and it was a total success.
The show’s cultural impact cannot be overstated. According to New York Magazine, Gossip Girl is “The Most Important Show of Our Time”. A decade ago, then-mayor Michael Bloomberg made his greatest contribution when he named January 26 “Gossip Girl Day” in NYC. The Gossip Girl fan base continues to thrive and displays no signs of ever letting its legacy die, with the Gossip Girl hashtag having 7.3 billion views on TikTok at the time of writing, with videos ranging from fan edits to outfit inspiration to people attempting to capture the old money GG aesthetic.
From the moment Serena was first spotted setting foot in Grand Central Station during the pilot episode’s opening scene set to Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks,” Gossip Girl solidified itself as a pop culture touchstone for the books (as long as we can disregard the disappointing reveal of GG’s identity in the series finale). Though HBO Max may have rebooted the series last year with a fresh ensemble, I’m confident that there will never be another show as monumental as Gossip Girl.
You know you love it, XOXO.
Jihane Bousfiha is an entertainment writer based in Florida. When she’s not watching or writing about TV and films, you can find her tweeting about all-things pop culture on Twitter @jihanebousfiha__.
For all the latest TV news, reviews, lists and features, follow @Paste_TV.
It's the question Normal Gossip host Kelsey McKinney asks her guests in each episode of her hit podcast.
The premise of Normal Gossip is exactly what it sounds like — gossip about "normal" people (i.e. non-celebs).
Kelsey invites new guests each week and tells them a story about a "friend of a friend" — a random, anonymous stranger. The stories range from craft circle scandal to neighbour betrayal to possible cults.
And as Kelsey and her guests ponder the nature of gossip and their relationship with it, it's hard not to consider what your own is — and whether, despite its bad reputation, gossip might actually be a good thing.
There's no doubt gossip is a guilty pleasure for many of us — but should we let go of the "guilty" part, and lean into the pleasure?
Gossip girls
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Gossip has long carried with it a whole bunch of cultural baggage. Most religions frown upon it — Kelsey herself says she grew up in an evangelical household where it was considered a sin.
"I grew up basically praying that God would take my intense and innate desire to gossip about everything and everyone away," she explains. "That obviously did not happen!"
But even if you aren't weighed down by religious guilt, gossip isn't exactly a celebrated activity. Whether it's in the schoolyard, workplace, or social circle, to be seen as a "gossip" is frequently to be branded as someone who is not to be trusted. The gendered connotations of that are no accident.
From its origins in the conversations women had in birthing rooms, gossip has always been coded as something women and other minorities do — and as such, dismissed as frivolous or even dangerous. But the reality is a lot more complicated than that.
Idol talk
If you're a millennial who came of age during the 2000s, you spent your formative years in the golden era of gossip — of the celebrity kind in particular. With the rise of the internet came gossip blogs like Perez Hilton and Oh No They Didn't!, and the act of sharing and analysing the lives of the rich and famous was no longer confined to magazines in hairdressers and doctor's offices — it took over the internet.
It was glorious, and it was also a mess, with very real and dark implications for the lives of those that got caught up in it.
No one highlights this more, perhaps, than Britney Spears — whose story not only exposes the bleakest aspects of celebrity culture, but also points to the reckoning we've had with it in recent years.
From ubiquitous jokes about her shaved head and public breakdown in 2007, through to the #FreeBritney movement and celebration of the end of her conservatorship in 2021, these cultural conversations about Britney showcase the power of gossip in both its most harmful and helpful forms.
Of course, celebrity gossip is still thriving — podcasts proliferate, and curated gossip accounts like DeuxMoi wrack up millions of followers. But it's not just celebrity gossip the internet has allowed to thrive — many of us lurk in spaces like Twitter and Reddit and Facebook groups purely to absorb the tea of random strangers. As the popularity of Normal Gossip proves, we're just really interested in the stories of others.
The greater good
While gossip has traditionally been seen as trashy and a bad habit, social psychologist Frank T. McAndrew says that most of the time, gossip is neutral and often even positive.
"Society could not operate without gossip," he says.
"It is the way we keep up with the goings-on of other people, and the way we keep track of their reputations.
"It is essential to know who you can trust and who is a cheater. It is a way of keeping people in line and forcing them to be good citizens … it is also an activity that creates bonds between people."
Kelsey points out that the very reason gossip has long been maligned is exactly why it's so important.
"Gossip is generally a tool of people who do not have actual power, which includes women and people of colour," she says.
"The messaging of gossip as 'frivolous' in particular, I think, is meant to brand legitimate information sharing as sketchy."
The research into gossip by Dartmouth postdoctoral fellow Eshin Jolly reveals similar outcomes.
"Our work suggests gossip that helps reduce social uncertainty can be beneficial, for example clarifying others' behaviour and the acceptability of that behaviour," he says. Whisper networks, much-discussed with the rise of the #MeToo movement, are just one example of the ways gossip can be used for the greater good.
But does something have to be a moral good for it to have value? When it comes down to it, gossip is also just really, really fun. Maybe our relationship with it doesn't have to be so complicated. It's vital to us, after all.
"Humans have been shaped through evolution to find things irresistible when they are essential to our survival and reproductive success," Dr McAndrew says.
"So gossip is very much like donuts and sex — we just can't help ourselves."
Jenna Guillaume is a freelance journalist and the author of Young Adult books What I Like About Me and You Were Made For Me.
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A diverse range of fields are considered for Ig Nobel Prizes, including physics, entomology and peace. The annual Ig Nobel awards aim to recognize research that first makes people laugh, and then think.
Last year other TU/e scientists won an Ig Nobel Prize for modeling crowd movements. This year, as part of a large international research project, Leo Tiokhin and fellow team members have been awarded the Ig Nobel peace prize for their research modeling honest and dishonest gossip.
Gossip is often thought of negatively, but by sharing honest information about absent others, gossip can also help to promote cooperation and improve team functioning.
As a meta-scientist, TU/e researcher Leo Tiokhin—a postdoc at the department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences—is often drawn to projects where he sees the potential to generate bigger-picture insights and make connections between diverse fields. When he was invited to join the 2019 international meeting "The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signaling" held at the Lorentz center in Leiden, the Netherlands, Tiokhin saw an opportunity for just such a project.
"It was inspiring to work with this team of scientists. We had many productive discussions about how modeling could be used to study gossip," says Tiokhin. "My role in the team was supportive, aiding in how to conceptualize the problem, capture key components of gossip interactions, and clearly communicate the findings."
A diverse group of researchers attended the symposium, ranging from psychologists to biologists to mathematicians. "When I was invited, my interest was piqued because it was a thought-provoking theoretical problem and because it related to my expertise in communication. All of us had worked on information transmission in one way or another, and this formed a common bridge between team members" said Tiokhin.
Although the research was a team effort, Paul van Lange (Vrij Universiteit Amsterdam, VU), Szabolcs Számadó (Hungarian Academy of Sciences Center of Excellence), and lead author Junhui Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing) were the ones mainly responsible for the model and scientific paper construction. It is interesting to note that the department of Social Sciences for Society at the VU conducts more gossip research.
Positive aspects of honest gossip
The researchers needed to simplify the complex construct of gossip to model it. To accomplish this, gossip was defined as a triangle: a situation where two people (the gossiper and recipient of gossip) discuss a third person who is not present. Additionally, the researchers allowed gossip to take on two forms: honest gossip and intentionally dishonest gossip.
"Of course, as with any model, we needed to make simplifications. For example, our model assumed that the gossiper always knew whether the target of the gossip was cooperative or uncooperative. It also assumed that the recipient of gossip would always trust gossip that they received. These assumptions were made for tractability, and they could certainly be modified in future extensions of our work."
Tiokhin continues: "There are many existing insights about honesty and dishonesty from research on the evolution of communication in biology. We drew on those insights to structure our models."
The researchers modeled four distinct types of social interactions between a recipient of gossip and the subject of the gossip. These four types of interactions included interactions that were mutually beneficial (a stag-hunt game; where the stag cannot be hunted individually, only together), beneficial for the receiver of gossip but costly for the target (a snowdrift game), beneficial for the subject but costly for the receiver of gossip (a helping game), and an interaction that was costly for both the recipient and subject of gossip (a punishment game).
Across all four games, the results were surprisingly consistent. The researchers found that a simple 'matching rule' could be used by gossipers to decide whether to be honest or dishonest. In situations where there was a strong match between the effect of gossip and how much gossipers valued the recipient and target, gossipers should be honest. In contrast, in situations where there was a strong mismatch between the effect of gossip and how much gossipers valued the recipient and the target, gossipers should be dishonest.
How does this relate to gossip in real-life settings, such as in the workplace? In workplaces, when co-workers are strongly interdependent and rely on one another to achieve a shared goal, each person benefits from the success of the others. In these cases, gossip can be expected to be honest when honesty benefits the team, and dishonest when honesty would harm the team.
"On the other hand, there are other situations where people are not positively interdependent. For example, you may be competing with a co-worker for a prized promotion, where only one of you can get the job. In such situations, people are negatively interdependent: one person's failure means the others' success. Such situations can be expected to lead to dishonest gossip to harm co-workers, or honest gossip when the content of the gossip is already negative," explains Tiokhin.
Changing track
Tiokhin has a background in the social sciences, which may be surprising for a researcher at a technical university. "I started my Ph.D. in evolutionary anthropology being interested in the conditions in which people are honest or dishonest in their communication. However, the specific questions I was interested in were relatively narrow. I couldn't help but notice the many bigger problems in science."
"At some point, I was spending so much of my time reading about problems in science and thinking about how to fix them, that I thought that I should either leave academia or switch to a field where I could improve the situation. The latter won out, and I switched to doing a Ph.D. in metascience (that is, research on research). I then continued along this path as a postdoc at TU/e, working with Daniel Lakens."
The Ig Nobel Prize for the team is something to be proud of. Although Tiokhin is happy to have been part of this team, his ambitions will soon take him away from academia, unfortunately. "You know, where I excel is in seeing the big picture and breaking down complex problems to make the problems concrete and manageable. I enjoy using data and models to generate practically useful insights. And I enjoy helping people around me as part of a cooperative team. I feel that industry offers me more opportunities to have an impact, as well as to do work that is practically useful and personally meaningful."
"So, although it is bittersweet to be leaving the TU/e and academia, winning an Ig Nobel as part of such a great team…well, there are worse ways to go. None of us ever imagined that we would be chosen for this prize, and we're honored to have our work recognized in this way."
The research was published last year in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
More information: Junhui Wu et al, Honesty and dishonesty in gossip strategies: a fitness interdependence analysis, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0300
Citation: Researchers model the effects of honest and dishonest gossip (2022, September 16) retrieved 16 September 2022 from https://ift.tt/qe72dox
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The question was posed to the newsroom of The Daily Tar Heel to determine what we can do to help each other feel grounded when we’re overwhelmed.
Some of my coworkers need a warm shower after a long day, while others need to exercise and sweat it all out. Some need 40 minutes of alone time. Some need a 40-minute rave.
I need gossip.
Admitting this might seem bold. Gossip has a profusely negative connotation. Gossipers are seen as rude, cruel and two-faced.
Don’t get me wrong — some gossip can be hurtful. But it doesn’t have to be and often it isn’t. In fact, only 3 to 4 percent of gossip is malicious, according to a 1997 study.
So what makes up the other 96 to 97 percent of talk?
Gossip is a way for those with less power to communicate information and protect one another. Having a conversation with a coworker about your unequal pay, communicating with other students about the questionable things a professor has said or even talking to family about an older family member's actions you disagree with — all of these conversations are gossip.
And they all disrupt power dynamics by allowing those in at the bottom of some hierarchy to check the actions of those higher up.
Think about it — who are you most likely to gossip with? Your boss? Absolutely not. Your coworkers, however? It’s a given.
Gossip is also used to maintain social norms and emotionally process personal events. For example, because people frequently gossip about cheating on your significant other in a negative way, it reminds us that cheating is not acceptable. It encourages us to maintain a norm that protects people and ensures they don’t get taken advantage of.
Gossip also brings people together. It makes us feel united and connected. It gives us a sense of shared social identity. That’s gossip in action.
So if gossip is good for us, why does it have such a negative connotation?
Despite the fact that we may start gossiping as early as age five, we’re taught just as quickly to fight this natural impulse — especially if you’re a girl.
The word "gossip" comes from the Old English term “god-sibb,” or godparent. It was a name given to the closest female friend of a woman after she gave birth and was a term of trust and endearment.
However, the institutional oppression of women has stripped the term of its affectionate character.
Across cultures, women who gather in groups have historically been seen in a negative light. The Bible refers to women who gossip as followers of Satan. Ancient Chinese proverbs admonish women who gossip and say gossip is a solely female affliction.
Historically, women have even been persecuted for female friendships. Female friend groups were often the target of witch hunts in the 1400s. The Middle Ages popularized a scold's bridle, or an iron muzzle created to physically injure and embarrass a “nagging” woman.
Gossip changed into a negative term to prevent women from advancing their social status. It was done to keep women subservient to men.
The relationships I have with close female friends are some of the most important bonds in my life. And having conversations with them, or anyone for that matter, are the times which I feel most connected, most informed and most myself.
We may be having challenging conversations about socioeconomic divisions. We also might be talking about getting a new haircut. It doesn’t matter — it’s all gossip and it’s all valuable.
I need gossip to “feel like a person” because part of my personhood is linked to the sincere connection I have with the people around me, particularly my female friends. I need gossip because I recognize its expansive value.
Gossip isn’t shameful and it’s definitely not pointless. It gives us the power to subversively shape the world with our words alone. Water cooler conversations and class GroupMes aren’t chintzy spaces of the public. They’re powerful networks. Their influence is feared by those who are too “good” to be a part of them.
After all, what is a newspaper if not a means to communicate with the masses? What is this column if not gossip?
When people in power converse, they are just speaking. When marginalized groups converse, we are dangerous.
So thanks for gossiping with me. I hope you pass it on.
I’m the number one source of gus-sip here on campus and I am dying to tell you about my newest tip. Spotted: several trucks arriving at Armstrong Campus with millions in technology aboard.
We all know there’s been some changes to Armstrong within the recent years. The biggest being the arrival of yours truly, of course. I’ve kept my eagle eye out for any new changes here in Savannah. Today. I’m here to break the news on Armstrong Campus’ biggest change yet.
My sources tell me Armstrong Campus is rumored to move fully online by as early as next semester. Things started slowly at first. Courses started becoming site-sync, students had to make the tiring trip out to Statesboro for short hour-long classes.
Now, it appears that the entirety of Armstrong Campus might just become one big computer lab altogether.
Don’t get your feathers in a bunch, the shuttle over to Statesboro will still be offered. In place of labs, students can expect to partake in virtual laboratory simulations.
“The future is pixelated,” one correspondent told me. “You can either fly with eagles, site-sync or swim.”
The digitalization of Armstrong doesn’t stop there: this is all a part of a 5-year plan to introduce a Matrix of college life.
Future generations of students can expect to plug into class every morning without the need to even change out of their pajamas.
The matrix is said to be an exact replica of the Statesboro Campus. Walks down Greek Row, frisbee at SweetHeart Circle and trips to Insomnia Cookies will complete the college experience.
I personally can’t wait to soar into the virtual world of digital learning.
Don’t get your wires crossed trying to figure out who I am. That’s one secret I will never tell.
Get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor: the internet might have been wrong about something. In this case, Zac Efron's face. The High School Musical star has addressed claims he received plastic surgery sometime in early 2021, which fans theorized after he appeared to look different during an Earth Day promo in April 2021. Well, Efron can explain: He tells Men's Health he shattered his jaw after slipping while running through his house in socks, hitting his chin against a fountain. "He lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he recalls, his chin bone was hanging off his face," Men's Health says. While recovering, Efron says his masseter muscles "just got really, really big." But claims that Efron had plastic surgery, in what was dubbed "Jaw-gate," became so widespread that Efron says his own mother called to ask him if the rumors were true. Don't worry, mom — it sounds like he just watched Risky Business one too many times.
Olivia Wilde appeared on a panel about "Don't Worry Darling" during the Venice Film Festival.
Wilde said the rumors of a rift between her and Florence Pugh were "tabloid gossip" in the panel.
Pugh was not at the panel and will be doing limited press for the film.
Olive Wilde avoided a question about her alleged "falling out" with Florence Pugh at the Venice Film Festival on Monday.
Wilde, 38, appeared on a panel to discuss "Don't Worry Darling," her latest directorial and acting project, ahead of its premiere at the festival Monday night.
The film's cast appeared with Wilde, including Harry Styles, Chris Pine, and Gemma Chan; however, Pugh, 26, the star of the movie, was noticeably absent from the panel, as she flew into Venice for Monday's premiere from the set of "Dune" after it was over, according to People.
Florence Pugh at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.Jacopo Raule / Contributor / Getty Images
In her interview with Variety, Wilde seemed to imply she fired LaBeouf both because of his acting process and because making Pugh feel "safe" during filming was her priority. Styles replaced LaBeouf in the film.
LaBeouf asserted that he quit after the interview was published, and he told Variety via email he had a video of Wilde asking him to reconsider his decision to leave the film. The video leaked online following LaBeouf's comments to the outlet. In the video, Wilde said she was "not ready to give up on" LaBeouf starring in the film and added that she thought his decision to leave "might be a bit of a wake-up call for Miss Flo," seeming to refer to Pugh.
According to People, during the conference, a reporter asked Wilde if there had been "a falling out" between her and Pugh. Instead of answering the question directly, Wilde praised Pugh's acting and criticized "tabloid gossip."
Harry Styles, Gemma Chan, Chris Pine, and Olivia Wilde attend the Venice Film Festival.Stephane Cardinale - Corbis / Contributor / Getty Images
"Florence is a force, and we are so grateful that she's able to make it tonight despite being in production on 'Dune.' I know, as a director, how disruptive it is to lose an actor even for a day, so I'm very grateful to her, to Denis Villeneuve for helping us," she said. "And we're really thrilled we'll get to celebrate her work tonight. I can't say enough how honored I am to have her as our lead. She's amazing in the film."
Wilde went on to say that she didn't "feel the need to contribute" to the chatter about the reported rift between herself and Pugh.
"As for all the endless tabloid gossip and all the noise out there, I mean, the internet feeds itself," she went on to say, according to People. "I don't feel the need to contribute. It's sufficiently well nourished."
A journalist from The Hollywood Reporter then tried to ask Wilde about LaBeouf, but according to the outlet, the panel's moderator said Wilde "had already answered" questions about "internet noise."
"Don't Worry Darling" premieres in theaters on September 23.
Representatives for Pugh and Wilde did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
