Though the Bible says those who gossip commit  a sin—and will die, followed by a trip to hell, a new research says, gossiping may be good for our self-esteem as it allows us to compare ourselves to others.

It’s not just the Bible which condemns gossiping, modern Christian leaders do not also find gossping attractive. Pop Francis was recently in the news for warning that, gossip ‘fills the heart with bitterness and also poisons us’.

According to the Dutch researchers, when people hear positive and negative gossip about others, this goes in to boost their self-reflection and self-evaluation.

One of the researchers-Elena Martinescu at the University of Groningen said: ‘Women who receive negative gossip experience higher self-protection concerns possibly because they believe they might experience a similar fate as the person being the target of the gossip

Men who receive positive gossip experience higher fear, perhaps because upward social comparisons with competitors are threatening’.

According to Prof. Martinescu , instead of trying to block out gossip, we should ‘accept gossip as a natural part of our lives and receive it with a critical attitude regarding the consequences it may have on ourselves and on others’ reports DailyMail.

Since gossiping has some good benefits for us; let’s keep it going—and ignore what the Bible and the religious leaders are saying. They are pretty old school.