Hearing Gossip and Age‐Based Intergroup Attitudes: Evidence From China and the United States

Age‐based intergroup relationships have received increasing scholarly attention in the context of aging societies, emphasizing the importance of identifying factors that shape attitudes toward different age groups. The present study conceptualized hearing gossip about outgroup members as a novel form of indirect contact and employed a comprehensive measure encompassing nine distinct gossip themes—both positive and negative in valence—to examine their associations with age‐based intergroup attitudes across two cultural contexts: China and the United States. A total of 468 participants (245 Americans, 223 Chinese) completed the survey. Across both samples, gossip‐hearing experiences were significantly associated with intergroup attitudes, with positive gossip‐hearing experiences demonstrating a stronger association than negative ones. Further analyzes revealed that these associations were mediated by intergroup anxiety and perceived ingroup norms. Notably, the mediation pathways varied by cultural context and by the specific dimensions of intergroup attitudes assessed. Although the correlational design precludes causal inference, the findings advance understanding of how informal social information, such as gossip, may contribute to the formation of intergroup attitudes in culturally distinct aging societies.