The conditional nature of gossip: exploring psychological and relational pathways with fsQCA

Gossip is a complex social behavior shaped by multiple psychological and relational factors. This study explores the conditional nature of employees' gossip in organizational settings by applying fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to survey data coming from a mid-size company located in Poland. We identify configurations of psychological traits (credulity and openness to experience) and relational variables (team cohesion and relational climate) that jointly lead to high or low levels of gossip, differentiated by content: physical appearance, achievements, and social information. Our findings reveal that high credulity is a necessary condition for all types of gossip, while openness and relational context play more context-dependent roles. Gossip about achievements and social information shares similar pathways, while gossip about appearance follows a distinct logic. These results underscore the importance of viewing gossip not as a singular phenomenon but as conditionally driven by interacting factors. The study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of informal communication in organizations and highlights the value of set-theoretic methods in organizational psychology.