People generally prefer not to be the topic of gossip, especially when negative, but a non-trivial minority (about 1/3) actually prefer to be talked about than ignored; this preference is stronger in men & in self-reported narcissists

The Oscar Wilde Dilemma: Understanding When People Want to be the Topic of Gossip. Andrew Hales, Meltem Yucel, Selma Rudert. Society for Personality and Social Psychology, conference 2021, Feb 11, 2021. https://whova.com/embedded/subsession/cecli_202103/1392301/1392305/

Description: When, if ever, do people want to be talked about behind their back? An experiment with a nationally representative sample (N = 1,900) indicated that people generally prefer not to be the topic of gossip, especially when negative. However, a non-trivial minority (about one-third) actually prefer to be talked about than ignored. This preference is stronger in men and in self-reported narcissists.