Call someone else dishonest, and people start to see you as dishonest

In a 1998 study, people who heard someone describe a third party using a trait word — 'ruthless', say — later rated the describer as more ruthless themselves, even though the word was never applied to them. The trait seems to 'stick' to whoever says it, which is part of why office gossip tends to backfire on the gossiper.

— John J. Skowronski, Donal E. Carlston, Lynda Mae & Matthew T. Crawford, Spontaneous trait transference — Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1998