A new University of Ottawa study is revealing that women are wired to be catty, backstabbing gossips.
Tracy Vaillancourt - a professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa and the study's lead author - says that Mean Girls behaviour has been developed over millennia as an effective way to torpedo rivals - and limit damage to themselves.
Her findings were published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. They were the result of analyzing nearly 100 papers on evolutionary psychology.
"On the one end of the spectrum, women use mild forms of indirect aggression to convey what they want so there is a lot of guess work to figure out what you did wrong," she said. "At the other end of the spectrum, they spread rumours behind your back and destroy your reputation."
Men tend to shout and use physical violence to conquer their social territory, Vaillancourt said. And when men are targeted by vicious gossip, they tend to ignore it.
She added that women are programmed to view younger, prettier rivals as direct threats, triggering a wicked passive aggressive attack.
But Kim Wallen, a psychologist at Emory University, was dismissive of the University of Ottawa study, slamming it as commentary rather than science.
"Her work comes across as more opinion than review," he told ABC, adding the study is strictly speculative. "She cites no empirical data to back up her claims."
Vaillancourt defended the study. She said victims of malicious mean girls suffer physically and emotionally. "Unless you live in a cave, I cannot believe there is any woman on the planet who has not engaged in this kind of behaviour, experienced it directly or witnessed it as a bystander," she said.
Meanwhile, the stepmother of one of two girls accused of bullying another teen to death has been sprung from jail after her bail was reduced.
The Lakeland, Fla., Ledger reports that Vivian Vosburg, who is accused of punching a number of children, is charged with two counts of child abuse. Police said the charges against Vosburg are not connected to the suicide.
Rebecca Sedwick, 12, committed suicide after being relentlessly bullied physically and verbally by a number of teens. Police theorized that Vosburg's brutal behaviour may have rubbed off on her stepdaughter.