Eathan Plaschka

“According to Dunbar, to understand the origins of gossip, we need look no further than the grooming behavior of apes. It’s thought early humans—like apes—bonded socially by grooming one another. Mutual stroking and nitpicking fostered goodwill so that later on, the two might share bananas or come to each other’s defense. But as humans grew more intelligent and the complexity of our activities and the size of our communities grew, language—and, more specifically, gossip—replaced grooming as a way to establish and maintain alliances, although we still pet and stroke those closest to us.”
― Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters