A rumor is an unsubstantiated story that spreads from person to person in a community by word of mouth. They can be about anything from celebrity gossip to viciously construed lies that hurt people. Usually, rumors are passed around out of spite such as jealousy, anger or disappointment. They can also be used to make or break celebrities, politicians and places of business.
The study of rumors is a rich area of social science research that has been studied from many different perspectives including psychological, sociological and computational. Early work on rumors began with the pioneering experiments of German sociologist William Stern in 1902 who had volunteers pass a story from mouth to ear without repeating it or explaining it. He found that the story became shorter and changed with each retelling. His student, Gordon Allport, would expand upon these early studies by describing the ways that rumors take shape through retelling and the formation of common interpretations.
Modern research on rumors has continued to evolve and is now heavily influenced by the widespread use of social media. Social media enables the collection of reaction data from many participants simultaneously, and provides an opportunity to track the spread of a rumor in real time. For example, a rumor about the potential dangers of drinking water during a hurricane can quickly reach large numbers of people via social media posts or tweets.
There are several factors that influence a rumor’s ability to spread, among them familiarity and novelty. A rumor about an election is likely to have greater appeal if it contains both familiar elements (a claim about discarded ballots, for example) and something new to motivate sharing (an innovative twist such as “they were found in a dumpster”).
Rumors often become more elaborate with each retelling, which is known as sharpening and leveling. A rumor about a terrorist threat may become more specific and precise, or it might be broadened to include more locations or events, while a rumor about a missing child might be more personal and emotional. Depending on the social context, a rumor can change and adapt as it travels, and it might even be corrected, as for instance when a rumor about a bomb scare in the city was found to be false.
The final factor that influences a rumor’s spread is participation in the spreading process. This can involve adding evidence to support a rumor, providing new interpretations of existing evidence (such as a statistician interpreting polling results), connecting a rumor with other rumors to form larger narratives, or correcting false claims. Participation can also be a passive activity, such as when someone retweets an initial rumor but does not add any additional information of their own. Typically, an increase in messages denying a rumor follows a debunking, but not always. Sometimes, though, the rumor can be so powerful that it can spread despite being discredited. This is called the hysteria effect. It is thought that this is because the rumor can be so emotionally compelling that the debunking is not noticed by the audience.