1. Rumors

2. How are rumors transmitted?
Allport and Postman identified 3 steps in rumor transmission
Leveling
The story gets shorter with only some details remembered
Sharpening
Details are emphasized and gain importance

3. How are rumors transmitted?
Assimilation
Distortions occur because of personal bias of person telling the story

4. How are rumors transmitted?
Allport and Postman also found:
Rumors circulates within a group based on its importance and its ambiguity of the subject
Rumors often lead to other forms of collective behavior
For example – riots, panics, etc

5. Examples Brooklyn Bridge (1883) Rumor: unsafe
Someone screamed “the bridge is falling”
40 people injured
12 trampled to death

6. Examples Proctor & Gamble Rumor: 1979, logo was satanic (13 stars)
1985, logo was removed

7. Examples
Beatles
Rumor: 1969, Paul McCartney was dead and had been killed in 1966
A double was hired to impersonate him – he was a fraud
John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison tried to be honest and give clues to the fans

8. Examples
“Revolution #9” backwards says “turn me on dead man” and “Paul is dead – miss him”
Cover of Magical Mystery Tour – all wore red carnations, except Paul wore a black carnation

9. Examples
Cover of Abbey Road – resembled a funeral procession. Lennon (the priest), Starr (undertaker), McCartney barefoot, out of step and eyes closed (corpse) Harrison (gravedigger)
Car in background has license plate 28IF
McCartney would have been 28 if he were still alive

11. Backmasking
a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward on to a track that is meant to be played forward.
Top 10 Famous Cases of Backmasking

12. Three Men and a Ghost?
Rumor: boy died in the house where the movie was filmed and his ghost returned to haunt the film crew

13. Disney Rumors
The Little Mermaid
Lion King
Aladdin

14. Wizard of Oz
See Snopes

15. Urban Legends
Stories that teach a lesson and seem realistic but are untrue
Seem realistic because some give specific times and places
Sometimes said to have happened to someone known to the storyteller
Snopes

16. A young girl named Lisa was left alone on several accounts as her parents worked late. Her parents bought her a dog to keep her company. One night Lisa was awoken by a constant dripping sound. She got up and went to the kitchen to turn off the tap properly. As she was getting back into the bed she stuck her hand under the bed and the dog licked it. The dripping sound continued, so she went to the bathroom and turned off the tap properly in there, too. She went back to her bedroom and stuck her hand under the bed, and the dog licked it again. But the dripping continued, so she went outside and turned off the taps out there. She came back to bed, stuck her hand under it, and the dog licked it again. The dripping continued, drip, drip, drip. This time she listened and located the source of the dripping — it was coming from her cupboard. She opened the cupboard door, and there was her dog hanging upside down with its neck cut, and written on the window on the inside of the cupboard was, "HUMANS CAN LICK TOO!!!"