Rumor is a type of information that has not been verified and may be false. It can be a form of gossip and is typically spread by word-of-mouth. Rumor is often used as a tool to hurt someone’s reputation or career, and it can cause a lot of harm. People who spread rumors are known as rumormongers.
Rumor is not something new, as it has been around for thousands of years. The word has been used in a variety of ways, including as a source of entertainment, to inform people about current events and even to help solve problems. The use of rumors has changed as the methods of communication have evolved. Today, rumors are spread through the Internet and social media.
The word rumor comes from the Latin verb “to whisper” and is related to words like lie, falsehood, fiction and nonsense. In English rumor is also known as a rumour or a gossip and can be spelt in both American and British English. Gossip is similar to rumor, but it is more focused on relationships and the exchange of personal details.
In the early 20th century, German psychologist William Stern conducted experiments with a chain of subjects who passed a story from mouth to mouth without having the opportunity to repeat it or explain it. He found that a rumor would be shortened and changed along the way and that each individual had an impact on how the rumor was received and disseminated. Stern’s work led to the modern scholarly definition of rumor, which includes both positive and negative rumors.
There are four components to a rumor: believability, ambiguity, sensitivity and the amount of attention the rumor receives. Believability is determined by the fact that a rumor must be repeated and shared in order to spread. Ambiguity is the degree to which a rumor remains unclear, and the sensitivity factor measures how much a rumor impacts individuals.
Lastly, the amount of attention a rumor receives determines whether it will spread and how far. A rumor is more likely to be true if it is more accurate and if it has a greater impact on the lives of the individuals involved. For example, the rumor that salt would be polluted by nuclear leakage from the Fukushima disaster in 2011 was highly relevant to the lives of the individuals who heard it and was therefore able to spread quickly.
As a result of these factors, it is important to understand how rumors spread so that they can be prevented or stopped. One method is to teach workshops on the topic, where participants can practice their skills by playing games such as ‘Telephone’, where a word is whispered from one person to another until it reaches the last person. The game highlights how a rumor can be distorted and how it is easier to believe a rumor the further it spreads. Other methods of preventing a rumor from spreading include providing factual information or asking for evidence before responding.