Facts Prove No Match for Gossip, It Seems

[snopes]

Until now, I was firmly pro-gossip. I welcomed the theory that gossip was the reason language developed. I cheered on researchers who believed gossip was the great evolutionary leap that enabled human apes to live peacefully in large groups, develop moral codes, build civilizations and, eventually, sell supermarket tabloids.

But now I wonder if we’ve leaped too far.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/science/16tier.html