The transmission of rumors is common within companies. Messages are distorted as they pass from one person to another so that, in the end, all members of the chain contribute to create new "information": the rumor.
We have known since childhood, when we played telegram, that when a message is repeated by word of mouth, it is so distorted that it can become unrecognizable.
But the most interesting thing is to observe how each of the members of the organization that participate in the rumor not only modifies, or removes, but also creates information.
There are different investigations (Allport and Postman; Transmission of rumors) where it is shown that the transmission of information is a group experience in which rumors are created and reality is distorted through successive testimonies.
In this article, we will see that the alterations of the information follow different laws.
Law of impoverishment or leveling
As information circulates, it tends to become shorter, more concise, easier to understand and to tell, omitting many details.
This is the best known form of distortion. Details are suppressed and the original text is cut, but it is not always the less relevant information that disappears. For example, it is observed that the profusion of numerical data clouds the attention, distracting it from more important focuses.
Take a look at the following example, which is a fairly popular game. If you do not know it, you can play with us in which case you must answer the final question without rereading the text, of course.
«You drive a 50-seater bus that leaves the retreat empty. At the first stop 5 children go up. At the next stop a child gets off and 10 adults get on. At the next stop one child, two adults get off and 8 more adults get on. At the next stop a child gets off and half the adults get off. At the next stop a child and 7 adults get off. How old is the bus driver? "
The excess of information kills the information and obscures the most important data in the text.
Law of accentuation or exacerbation
It is the perception, retention and reproduction of a limited number of details that come from a larger context. This mechanism provokes the selective retention of strange or striking words, modifies the relative dimension of the objects described, produces changes in the movements included in the story, etc. It consists, for example, of recounting a past conversation by accentuating some word or phrase that has been striking to us, or of modifying the line of the conversation based on our convictions.
At the dinner that the company management offered to all its employees for Christmas, the General Director used to close the event with a speech. It began with the joy of being all gathered for this celebration, followed by congratulations for having exceeded the objectives for another year and, perhaps because of this tendency that speakers have to not know how to finish, it continued with "simple unimportant recommendations" such as thinking to turn off the lights of the company changing room when leaving "because the light is money and several times I find it on", or something similar.
The next day, when an employee discussed dinner with an absent colleague, a trusted supplier or client, he summarized the event as follows: "well, he paid us a good meal to give us a better cigar from the lights at the end." Everything else was lost.
Assimilation law
It consists of preserving and reorganizing the information around certain central reasons or details.
There are several forms of assimilation:
Assimilation of the central theme: it consists of reducing or accentuating details in a way that makes them correspond to the dominant idea of the story, in order to increase its coherence, its credibility and its logic.
In other words: we count things as we believe them. When various elements of the story seem to lack coherence, we do not hesitate, although without realizing it, to add information to make it more logical. It is a great source of creativity, usually unconscious and involuntary. It occurs because the human brain is capable of establishing bridges between disconnected information, which is the basis of deductive reasoning. However, sometimes, this ability makes us tricks, it is a frequent reason for unfounded rumors.
Assimilation by condensation: consists of making two details merge, instead of keeping them separately.
It is a relatively common phenomenon that amalgamates two unrelated pieces of information into one.
Pedro informed his busy boss that he had not been able to receive the merchandise at the port because he had suffered a severe traffic jam on the way. Seeing that he could not arrive in time to clear customs, he had gone to wait for a relative at the airport.
Which was not his surprise when he heard the boss's secretary comment on the phone that the port was jammed, the shipments had arrived by plane and were at the airport.
His boss had mixed two pieces of information and made a new one.
Assimilation in advance: some details of the information acquire a meaning according to the thoughts or convictions of the person who transmits them.
Antonio G. was surprised by the brilliant success achieved by a shop in the center of the city, let's call it X. So much so that he did not stop predicting problems of all kinds: they will not be able to bear it, they have too many expenses, the market will get tired, etc. One day he heard family members, recounting their morning activities, commenting: "and we wanted to go through store X, but there was a sign where they said it was closed." Antonio picked up the phone and called his brother to "inform" him that Store X had already closed. "You see how I was right, that I couldn't hold out." The only problem is that Antonio did not pay due attention to the story. The store was closed… because it was after two. And it reopened in the afternoon, as well as every weekday for the 4 years that the incident occurred.
The 3 sieves of Socrates
Someone once approached Socrates to tell him the latest rumor:
- I'm going to tell you the latest news that is commented in Athens about our friend X.
- Before you tell me, tell me first, did you find out yourself, or have they just told you?
- They have told me, but they take it for granted.
- I mean, you can't be totally sure because you couldn't find out yourself. You just think it's true, right?
- Effectively, that's right.
- And tell me, is the transmission of this «news» going to benefit our friend?
- Not quite. In fact, it could… harm you.
- Another thing to finish, will listening to it be helpful to me in something, will it give me something that I lack now?
- The truth is, no. It is just news.
- Yes. And from what I understand, a piece of news that you cannot certify is true, nor will it benefit our friend, nor will it provide me with something useful. So if it is not true, neither kind nor useful, do not comment on this news and allow me to recommend that you forget it yourself.
You know, rumors are just rumors, but they spread so much faster that we add fuel to the fire. For our part, we recommend that you do like Socrates, pass the rumors through the 3 sieves and if they do not comply: forget them!
