rumor

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The Rumor

A rumor (Greek pheme or phama ; Latin fama ), also Ondit (French on dit , 'one says'), is an unauthorized message that is always of general or public interest, spreads diffusely and its content more or is less subject to change. The most important characteristic of a rumor is the insecurity of the information passed on.

to form

According to the classification by Robert H. Knapp (1944), rumors can be divided into three categories:

  1. Wish rumors (hope for a positive event)
  2. Rumors of aggression (hostility towards others)
  3. Fear rumors (fear of a negative event)

In addition, rumors can be classified according to their content, such as organizational rumors (DiFonzo et al., 1994) or product rumors (Miller, 2013).

Demarcation

In this general meaning, the term is occasionally used synonymously with “ gossip ” and “ modern saga ”, in the case of skepticism or proven untruthfulness with “ legend ” or “ fairy tale ”. In the narrower sense of the term, in the case of a rumor - unlike in the case of gossip - the narrated events are usually not ascribed to individual people; In the modern saga, on the other hand, concrete people are present, but are not mentioned by name. Strategically launched rumors in politics are attributed to propaganda .

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
From the first third no more receipts ... - Lu ( discussion ) 19:56, 8. Mar. 2019 (CET)

Related terms

  • As the grapevine is called an operation, be told in the secret mostly through the policy held incidents and slowly get under the population and thus to the public. This dissemination of news, which is common in totalitarian states, can lead to rumors.
  • Latrine slogans are colloquially disparaging rumors that are mostly misleading or false and are secretly spread. The word comes from the soldier's language , since in barracks or other accommodations at the local septic tank or latrine, all crew levels met for joint emptying and where information was also exchanged and then passed on. Synonyms are latrine rumors or crude shit house slogans.
  • Stammtisch slogans denote stereotypical set pieces of local opinion-forming and also include rumors.

Framework conditions of the "rumor mill"

The rumor lives from the tension between whether it is true or untrue. Hence, it arouses interest and attention . If it fulfills existing expectations (fears, hopes, etc.), a rumor falls on nourishing ground; it seems to offer orientation for moments.

A rumor also serves social needs for closeness and agreement. By sharing a supposed secret, something like a community of knowledgeable people is created for a short time, which is strengthened by shared feelings such as malicious pleasure or moral indignation. Existing informal norms are also consolidated .

Origin and Distribution

A rumor arises when someone (you can call him the originator of the rumor) "makes a factual assertion or a thesis", i.e. expresses it to at least a third party. A certain degree of spread is typical of a rumor. It depends on how often and how quickly the average recipient passes on the rumor.

The factual assertion or thesis can be true, half-true, or untrue; one can differentiate between falsehood and lies (in the first case the author himself believes in his false statement; in the second case not; for possible motives of a lie see lie ). The emergence of an untrue factual assertion or thesis is favored if the author has a strongly subjectively colored perception , thinks in an unstructured manner, takes presumptions for facts, fails to notice a misunderstanding , if he is inclined to conspiracy theories and / or if he has lower motives ( count as such e.g. malicious pleasure , malice , envy , resentment (implies destructiveness ).

Rumors can be spread or spread in writing or orally (see also gossip ); and mass media can. Motives for "telling on" can be a subjectively perceived novelty value or degree of sensation or a personal concern .

Sometimes when passing on a rumor, the recipient is asked not to pass it on and / or not to reveal who he heard the rumor from ( confidentiality ). The narrator may have a legitimate interest in it. An example: X told Y the (true) rumor at the end of 1942 that the military situation in the Battle of Stalingrad was far worse than the Nazi regime claimed. Such a statement could cost the narrator his life (charges of undermining military strength ).

Field experiments , in which researchers deliberately circulated rumors, showed that certain persons in a population are particularly involved in the deforming transmission of rumors . Their credibility and authority play a major role . With the method of chain reproduction, FC Bartlett (1932) was able to model the following tendencies in the formation of rumors: simplification , structuring , dramatization , detailing and assignment of blame .

The phenomenon that messages are changed when they are forwarded multiple times is also called silent mail .

Rumors in folk tales

The rumor is considered by folklore research to be a rather exotic genus of popular prosa . It is usually short and direct, the communication is often in the third person and usually relates to something that has already happened. Characteristic text frames such as “I heard that ...” at the beginning or “Isn't that a thing?” At the end of the narration are based on both the questionable truth content and the moral ambivalence . The rumor has a special relation to the legend , also to the modern legend.

Functional areas

Based on DiFonzo and Bordia (2007), Hutchinson and Appel (2020) have compiled a classification of different functional areas of rumors:

  • Counteract ambiguity
  • Manage threats
  • entertainment
  • Communication of group norms
  • Do harm to others

credibility

Whether a rumor is believed depends on various factors. According to the confirmation bias , information is more likely to be believed if it corresponds to one's own views. Information is also perceived as more credible if it is disseminated from different sources and the sources are perceived as credible. In addition, according to the Illusory Truth Effect , rumors are more likely to be believed if they are heard several times.

Ending rumors

According to Merten (2009) there are four different ways to end a rumor:

  1. The facts alleged in the rumor can be perceived or experienced by all those familiar with the rumor - in the media as definitely not applicable. This applies, for example, to all forecast rumors (such as doomsday rumors).
  2. All addressees were reached by the rumor, so that nobody is interested in it anymore.
  3. Events of higher topicality (that could also be a more current rumor) occur and superimpose the rumor process so that it dies.
  4. In public, the rumor and its context are unreservedly and, above all, credibly cleared up.

See also

literature

  • Florian Altenhöner: Communication and Control. Rumors and urban publics in Berlin and London 1914/1918. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58183-6 .
  • FC Bartlett: Remembering. A study in experimental and social psychology . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1932.
  • Jürgen Brokoff: The communication of rumors. Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0332-4 .
  • Manfred Bruhn, Werner Wunderlich (ed.): Medium rumor. Studies on the theory and practice of a collective form of communication . Haupt, Bern u. a. 2004, ISBN 3-258-06650-7 .
  • Karin Bruns: "Do it wherever you want it but do it!" The rumor as the participatory productive force of the new media . In: Britta Neitzel, Rolf F. Nohr (Hrsg.): The game with the medium. Participation - Immersion - Interaction (series of publications by the Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaften). Schüren, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-89472-441-2 , pp. 332-347.
  • Klaus Merten : On the theory of rumors. In: Publizistik, Volume 54, Number 1, pp. 15–42.
  • Gary Alan Fine and Janet S. Severance: Rumor. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchen , Vol. 5, 1988, Col. 1102-1109.
  • Jean-Noël Kapferer: Rumors. The oldest mass medium in the world . Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-7466-1244-6 .
  • Hans-Joachim Neubauer: Fama. A story of the rumor. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-88221-727-8 .
  • Wolfgang Pippke: Rumor . In: Peter Heinrich, Jochen Schulz to Wiesch (Hrsg.): Dictionary of micropolitics . Leske & Budrich, Opladen 1998, ISBN 3-8100-2013-3 , pp. 96-98.
  • Christian Schuldt: Gossip! From chatter in the village to twittering on the internet . Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-458-17457-8 .

Web links

Wiktionary: rumor  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikiquote: Rumor  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Latin word fama is a borrowing from the Doric-Greek word phama or Attic-Greek word pheme , cf. Lars-Broder Keil, Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Rumors make history. Serious false reports in the 20th century. Berlin 2006, p. 11, ISBN 3-86153-386-3 .
  2. ↑ Duden: Ondit
  3. ↑ a b Robert H. Knapp: A PSYCHOLOGY OF RUMOR . In: Public Opinion Quarterly . tape 8 , no. 1 , January 1, 1944, ISSN  0033-362X , p. 22–37 , doi : 10.1086 / 265665 ( oup.com [accessed January 12, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Nicholas DiFonzo, Prashant Bordia, Ralph L. Rosnow: Reining in rumors . In: Organizational Dynamics . tape 23 , no. 1 , June 1, 1994, ISSN  0090-2616 , pp. 47-62 , doi : 10.1016 / 0090-2616 (94) 90087-6 ( sciencedirect.com [accessed January 12, 2020]).
  5. ^ David L. Miller: Introduction to collective behavior and collective action . Waveland Press, Long Grove 2013.
  6. ↑ a b Johannes Stehr: Legendary everyday life. About the private appropriation of prevailing morality. Frankfurt a. M. / New York 1998, pp. 63 f., ISBN 3-593-35986-3 .
  7. ↑ Max Brink: Rumor or Legend. Methods of deception. Verlag Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2000, pp. 17 and 39, ISBN 3-89811-735-9 .
  8. ↑ Jörg Bergmann: The gossip. On the social form of discrete indiscretion. Berlin / New York 1987, p. 96, ISBN 3-11-011236-1 .
  9. ↑ Pamela Wehling: Communication in Organizations. The rumor in the organizational change process. Wiesbaden 2007, p. 74, ISBN 3-8350-6083-X .
  10. ↑ Nicholas Difonzo, Prashant Bordia: Rumor, Gossip and Urban Legends . In: Diogenes . tape 54 , no. 1 , February 2007, ISSN  0392-1921 , p. 19–35 , doi : 10.1177 / 0392192107073433 (DOI = 10.1177 / 0392192107073433 [accessed January 12, 2020]).
  11. ^ A b Leona Hutchinson, Markus Appel: The psychology of rumor . In: The psychology of the post-factual: About fake news, "Lügenpresse", Clickbait & Co. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg 2020, ISBN 978-3-662-58695-2 , p. 157–166 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-662-58695-2_14 (DOI = 10.1007 / 978-3-662-58695-2_14 [accessed January 12, 2020]).
  12. ^ PC Wason: Reasoning about a rule . In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology . tape 20 , no. 3 , August 1, 1968, ISSN  0033-555X , p. 273-281 , doi : 10.1080 / 14640746808400161 , PMID 5683766 (DOI = 10.1080 / 14640746808400161 [accessed January 12, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Nicholas Difonzo, Prashant Bordia: Rumor psychology: Social and organizational Approaches. 2007, doi : 10.1037 / 11503-000 (DOI = 10.1037 / 11503-000 [accessed on January 12, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Nicholas DiFonzo, Jason W. Beckstead, Noah Stupak, Kate Walders: Validity judgments of rumors heard multiple times: the shape of the truth effect . In: Social Influence . tape 11 , no. 1 , January 2, 2016, ISSN  1553-4510 , p. 22–39 , doi : 10.1080 / 15534510.2015.1137224 (DOI = 10.1080 / 15534510.2015.1137224 [accessed on January 12, 2020]).
  15. ↑ Klaus Merten: On the theory of rumors . In: Journalism . tape 54 , no. 1 , March 2009, ISSN  0033-4006 , p. 15–42 , doi : 10.1007 / s11616-009-0028-y ( springer.com [accessed January 12, 2020]).