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.

大量的实验证据表明，负面八卦会增加个人的声誉，从而促进团体间的合作。但是，最近的现场研究表明，负面的八卦会降低其目标对象（即八卦的对象）中的组织公民行为（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中的作用。基于社会交流理论，我们预测负面八卦的对象会经历较低的社会包容性。反过来，我们建议社会包容性低会导致八卦目标的OCB降低。三项研究的结果：相关研究（N = 563），实验室实验（N = 85）和在线情景实验（N= 597），表明作为负面八卦的目标减少了社会包容并间接减少了OCB。我们的多方法方法将组织和实验室实验中的研究结果联系起来，使人们更加了解负面八卦对目标行为的影响。我们表明，由于负面八卦对目标的社会包容性具有不利影响，因此它可能无法像实验研究所声称的那样有效地实现可持续合作。