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What are the things that you will do if you are the target of hurtful gossip?
8 Things to Do If You’re the Target of Hurtful Gossip
- Regulate your negative emotions.
- Expand your perspective.
- Practice self-compassion, and even forgiveness.
- De-identify from the situation.
- Consider how to respond.
- Give it time.
- Focus on what’s going right.
- Remember that you are not alone.
What are the ways to deal with gossip?
Confront the source of the rumor directly.
- Say something polite yet direct, like: “Hey. I want you to know that I don’t appreciate the things you’ve been saying about me.
- Sometimes, the person who started the rumor didn’t do it on purpose. It may, for instance, be a friend who simply let a secret slip by accident.
Why is it bad to gossip about someone?
Spreading private information or negative judgments is painful to others and reflects poorly on the gossiper. Why do people gossip? People who don’t feel good about themselves temporarily feel better when they judge others negatively.
What to do if you are facing hurtful rumors?
If you are facing hurtful rumors, you’ll need to use emotional intelligence to avoid making the situation any worse—and, ideally, to make it better. These eight tips can help turn the situation around:
Do people gossip to feel like they belong?
People gossip to feel as though they belong to the group. Yet, when acceptance is based on being “in on a secret,” it is not based on a person’s identity, but on exclusion or maliciousness.
Is it painful to have slander about you?
No matter how many people are on the receiving end of the slander about you, it can be painful, and leave you feeling frustrated with your inability to correct it. Because of this, Harbinger and I teamed up to offer some advice on how to handle and process these situations: Negativity makes them look bad, not you.