A rumor is an unsubstantiated story that spreads from person to person in a community through word of mouth. It can make or break a celebrity, place of business, or just about anything else. Rumor can be good or bad and is often a mixture of truth and fiction. It can influence the behavior of people for both good and ill, sometimes causing riots. It is a form of communication that has been around for centuries.
When you start a rumor it is important to know what your goal is. You may want to humiliate someone, break up a relationship, or even take down the government. Whatever your reason you must be careful that you don’t let your emotions like jealousy or anger get the best of you while making up a rumor. You also need to consider if there is a more ethical way to achieve your goal, because starting a rumor can be difficult on those that trust you and it can hurt their feelings.
If you are a celebrity or a place of business the rumors that are spread about you can be a major factor in whether or not people will come to your restaurant, shop, or buy your products. It is a type of marketing that can be very powerful and you need to be able to handle the positive and negative rumors alike.
One of the ways to control a rumor is to leave evidence that will discredit it. If you plant pieces of proof, such as pictures or video, it will be more difficult for people to believe the rumor and it won’t spread as quickly. Another way to keep a rumor from spreading is to be able to tell it back to the person that started it and prove that it was false.
Many social scientists have studied the nature of rumor and how it is spread. Some studies have shown that people tend to support unverified rumors that are interesting or exciting. They will retweet them and pass them on to others. There are also a number of studies that show that when a rumor is proven to be false it will have a negative impact on the reputation of the person who started it.
A newer area of study is the way that rumors spread through the use of social media. These websites allow people to spread rumors much more quickly and far reaching than they could before. For example, if an ex-boyfriend posted a rumor about his former girlfriend on twitter it would reach people that she didn’t even know and ruin her reputation. It is an interesting time to be studying the phenomenon of rumor. The information that is available to researchers is growing rapidly and will no doubt lead to a better understanding of this fascinating human behavior.