Another study conducted by Mr. Keltner and Cameron Anderson, a professor at the Haas School of Business, measured "Machiavellian" tendencies, such as the willingness to spread malicious gossip, in a group of sorority sisters.
If certain women constantly have different men visiting, after awhile some kind of gossip can easily be spread that this resident may in fact be running a side business.
Malicious gossip is far commoner: mean fictions that once would have circulated in a small group now spread across the world instantly through forwarded e-mails and newsgroups.