"Only our lack of information awakens the need to think"
Eduard De Bono.
A rumor is a general statement that is shared person-to-person and contains unverifiable information about a situation that affects a large percentage of people.
The rumor starts from the uncertainty, therefore not necessarily a rumor is false. In fact, it is considered that 75% of the information in a rumor tends to be true.
The tension of uncertainty escapes when people take advantage of informal spaces to generate rumors. It is something like trying to interpret the reality that surrounds them by giving it new meanings or trying to put together the puzzle with new information, regardless of whether it is real or supposed.
The rumor appears when "the formal communication channels do not provide enough information about the operation and development of the organization and, the members of the same, try to search for it through informal channels", comments Jesús García in his work and even adds that presents thanks to the fact that "we are concerned about the future because we will spend the rest of our lives in it."
According to the document "Psychology of rumor" by Gordon Allport, anxiety and fear are the hidden stimuli of rumor where also "hatred is what supports accusatory or slanderous stories."
The aforementioned document (psychology of rumor) also points out that rumors reach a frenzy when the population that generates them waits for an event to be carried out for a long time and, furthermore, points out that "the rumor runs due to lack of news."
The same document points out that by generating a state of anxiety within the population, it tends to take a defeatist point of view and end up reflecting hatred and hostility, the purpose of which is to create discord, even generating confusion and demoralization.
The rumor is fought with facts that deny it. In rumor psychology it is established that once you have reviewed experiments during the Second World War you could establish that information and arguments are seldom enough to destroy rumors.
How an incident deforms and becomes a rumor:
- Leveling: Details are omitted that allow the incident to be fully understood Accentuation: Emphasis and importance is given to the elements that are to be highlighted and with which it is intended to give the interpretation of the incident Assimilation: the level and accentuated message is related to past experiences or present attitudes.
The document Psychology of Rumor also describes that rumor can serve as a vehicle for the expression of personal feelings, without the rapporteur needing to imply the existence of such feelings. That is, whoever propagates or generates a rumor can transmit their feelings within it without necessarily being explicit in commenting on them.
Internal communication. Garcia, Jesus. Diaz de Santos. Barcelona. 1998
Psychology of rumor. Allport, Gordon. Psyche. Buenos Aires. 1982.
