According to a new study, the act of gossiping helps provide people with insight to who they are and where they fall within society.

Rumor has it that gossiping may be good for you.

It's a natural part of every day life, and researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands are saying we should embrace it.

A new study by the Dutch researchers, and published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, found that gossip helps people in different ways.

When we gossip with others, it helps us learn about ourselves, understand our place in society and even protect us from any potential threats.

Through gossip, people learn of others' failures and successes, which leads them to indirectly compare their own choices to that person's.

The study used 183 college students for different experiments regarding gossip and they answered true or false questions that related to other participants.

It was determined that positive gossip made participants feel of greater value, especially compared to those who received negative gossip, which made them feel socially unprotected.

According to one researcher, it's possible gossip helps with, “venting strong emotions, building social relationships and intimate friendships.”

It appears the person with the higher gain is the one who listens to gossip as opposed to the one spreading it. This has to do with trust, because if you're known to spread gossip, people may be less willing to divulge things in front of you.