About 90 percent of everyday conversations are gossip — but it’s not all malicious, a new study claims.

Researchers in the Netherlands say gabbing is instigated for “positive reasons” and warns people about lazy co-workers and prompts slackers to start pulling their weight.

Gossip is especially effective at work, according to a study in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.

Bosses can “minimize the negative and optimize the positive consequences” of water-cooler chit-chat, say the study’s co-authors, Bianca Beersma and Prof. Gerben Van Kleef.

“Speech makes it possible for group members to warn each other against those who do not behave in accordance with the group’s norms,” Beersma and Van Kleef wrote.

Their study asked more than 220 university students about why they last talked behind someone’s back, and information-gathering and fact-checking proved to be common motives.

Researchers also found that people were more likely to chat about office goof-offs to their colleagues, rather than to friends, as a way to protect their work group.

When participants were being dished dirt about a lazy worker, they viewed the chit-chat as social instead of immoral.

KBriquelet@nypost.com