How to Start a Rumor

Rumor is a false, unsubstantiated information that spreads in an informal and unpredictable manner. It’s the stuff of gossip, and it can be very serious – or even dangerous if it leads to incorrect actions. Rumors emerge during crises and stressful events as people gather together to make sense of ambiguous and evolving information, especially when official sources are delayed or not available.

In order to become a rumor, a story must satisfy several criteria: it needs to be juicy and interesting, it must contain ambiguity (to allow people to spin the rumor according to their own insecurities), it must have been repeated (to increase its familiarity and believability), and it should not have been verified or denied (this is called illusory truth).

The key to starting a rumor is finding the right person to tell it to. Usually this is someone who is interested in the topic or someone who has a lot of friends. The more people you tell, the more likely it is that the rumor will become true and spread. Unless you can be sure that everyone you tell will keep it a secret, you should only share the rumor with trusted friends who are willing to do the same.

To start a rumor, you must be able to convince the listener that it is true. This is the hardest part of all, but there are certain things you can do to help. Start with a juicy rumor that is not too difficult to believe, but be careful that it is not so outrageous that it will be immediately rejected. Tell it to a friend who is a good gossip and who is very curious. Tell the friend that if the rumor comes back to you, they should deny it because they know that you promised not to tell.

Once the rumor has been started, it will continue to spread until it is confirmed or denied. Sometimes this happens naturally, such as when a celebrity visits the school and students overhear teachers talking about it. Other times, it takes more work, such as the rumors that ran in a newspaper about a high-profile couple who had been having marital problems and eventually got a divorce.

There are also rumors that get fueled by a desire to harm the subject of the rumor. For example, when a woman is obsessed with Angelina Jolie and has extensive cosmetic surgery, she may be more inclined to believe that her husband was cheating on her and spreading a rumor about it. The rumor may be false, but the fact that she is trying to bring down her husband makes it a believable rumor. This type of rumor is often used to cause embarrassment in public, and can have consequences that are very real for the victim. These types of rumors are very common, and can be hard to avoid when you live in the age of social media.