Ample experimental evidence shows that negative gossip fosters cooperation in groups by increasing individuals’ reputational concerns. However, recent field studies showed that negative gossip decreases organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among its targets (i.e., people whom gossip is about). Bridging these findings, we study the role of social inclusion in explaining how negative gossip affects targets’ engagement in OCB. Based on social exchange theory, we predict that targets of negative gossip experience low social inclusion. In turn, we propose that low social inclusion leads to low OCB of gossip targets. Results of three studies, a correlational study (N = 563), a laboratory experiment (N = 85), and an online scenario experiment (N = 597), showed that being the target of negative gossip reduced social inclusion and indirectly decreased OCBs. Our multi-method approach bridges findings from research conducted in organizations and in laboratory experiments and offers a more nuanced understanding of the effects of negative gossip on targets’ behavior. We show that due to its detrimental effect on targets’ social inclusion, negative gossip may not be as effective for enabling sustainable cooperation as experimental studies claim it to be.

大量实验证据表明，负面八卦通过增加个人声誉问题来促进群体合作。然而，最近的实地研究表明，负面八卦会降低其目标（即八卦所涉及的人）的组织公民行为（OCB）。结合这些发现，我们研究了社会包容在解释负面八卦如何影响目标参与 OCB 方面的作用。根据社会交换理论，我们预测负面八卦的目标社会包容性较低。反过来，我们认为低社会包容性会导致八卦目标的 OCB 低。三项研究的结果，即相关研究（ N = 563）、实验室实验（ N = 85）和在线情景实验（ N = 597）表明，成为负面八卦的目标会降低社会包容性，并间接减少 OCB。我们的多方法方法结合了组织和实验室实验的研究结果，并提供了对负面八卦对目标行为的影响的更细致的理解。我们表明，由于负面八卦对目标的社会包容性产生不利影响，因此对于实现可持续合作可能并不像实验研究声称的那样有效。