Rumor is a story that gets passed around and can be either true or false. It is spread through word of mouth, such as someone telling a friend or coworker, who then tells another person, and so on. The more people a rumor is told to, the more it will grow and become more believable. Rumors can also have a significant effect on how people act, such as when they decide to take action, whether it be to support or oppose a certain cause.
The way a rumor grows depends on a number of factors, including its initial credibility, the importance of the subject, and how much it is shared. For example, a rumor about a celebrity’s death or an impending natural disaster will get more attention than a rumor about a company merger. The initial credibility of a rumor is based on the fact that it is new, exciting, and intriguing. If a rumor is not deemed credible, it will not get any traction and will die out quickly.
More importantly, a rumor’s credibility can be improved by leaving evidence behind, such as photos or videos. This is an important aspect of a rumor because it allows people to “co-create” plausible explanations, which in turn increases the credibility and speed of the rumor’s spread. Evidence can also help a rumor gain traction by creating a sense of urgency, which is an important component of a rumor.
In order to understand how a rumor works, it is helpful to consider the four different components that make up its dynamics:
Anxiety (personality and situational): People with a more anxious personality or who are in an anxiety-lifting situation are more likely to create rumors in an attempt to alleviate their insecurities. The same goes for individuals who are attempting to impress or please other people, as they may want to create a rumor about themselves to boost their social status.
Narrative (or trope): Most rumors are based on narrative templates that have been used before. This is because a rumor is more likely to be transmitted if it is consistent with an individual’s sense of what happens in the world, which is determined by the things that they have heard about before.
Repetition: Most rumors are not completely accurate, as they are often repeated incorrectly by each person who hears them. This is because a rumor can lose its detail as it is passed along, and it can change as people forget details or add more information in.
This is especially the case when a rumor is about a topic that is highly relevant to an individual’s life. For example, a rumor that is about an upcoming wedding or a big promotion can become untrue because of opportunistic exploitation.