Rumor is a common and powerful form of social cognition. Its social and psychological role helps humans cope with anxiety and uncertainty (e.g., people worried about nuclear weapons might find an outlet by claiming they see dings on their Ford Crestlines and Chevrolet Bel Airs). The scholarly definition of rumor dates back to 1902 when Gordon Allport’s experiment tested the effect of Chinese whispers. He had subjects tell a story to each other, without repeating it exactly, and found that the information shortened and changed as it moved from person to person. Allport referred to this phenomenon as “rumor,” and his work influenced the modern study of rumors.
To understand rumor, researchers have developed an array of theoretical models. Some emphasize its transmission and spread, others look at the content and motivations of those who start and share a rumor, and still others focus on its meaning. What all of these models have in common is a recognition that rumor has both social and cognitive dimensions that can be leveraged to inform communication strategies.
For example, the COVID-19 pandemic scored high on every dimension of our rumor framework: it was novel, had serious consequences and a complex spreading mechanism, and it was accompanied by heightened emotional arousal. These factors can amplify a rumor, propelling it from small accounts in the margins of a network to a central position. As a rumor becomes more widely shared, it can also accumulate ad-hoc evidence and credibility from its circulation: video of a voter casting their ballot, screenshots of website or TV graphics that show vote counting processes, or pictures of ballot boxes being dropped off for delivery to the polling places.
Another factor that can make a rumor viral is its relative size and movement, which refer to the number of participants who are involved in spreading it and how fast it travels. The larger the group and the faster it moves, the more likely a rumor is to spread, even if its information is inaccurate.
Finally, a rumor’s ambiguity and dramatic detail can increase its potential for spread. These characteristics can also help to counter the tendency to perceive ambiguous claims as inaccurate or false, because they allow people to construct alternative scenarios in which the claim may be true.