Psst, have you heard...? What the thrill of gossip teaches us
Some gossip can be good, but things get tricky when doctors chatter about patients
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Setting aside issues of invasion of privacy and patient confidentiality, is gossip per se truly a bad thing?
PHOTO: PEXELS
Gossiping has long had a bad rap. Way back in 16th- and 17th-century Britain, those found gossiping were sometimes punished with a “scold’s bridle” – an iron contraption that encased the head, with a gag to compress the tongue – making speech impossible.
But it is impossible to suppress what is probably a very human impulse and appetite.

