Like Wildfire; How Are Rumor Consumes and Spreads
Samantha Ancheta
Like Wild Fire; How a Rumor Consumes and Spreads Did you hear what happened to ______(insert a famous person or someone in your network)? This question never seems to leave us unfazed. It immediately lures us in the trap of rumor and will not let us go. Like a tumor, a rumor quickly spreads. Rumor is a circulating story or information that is unverified; it is a reflection of our worldview. An example we will talk about is fear. The fears that easily grip our hearts shows how rumor becomes active, then, due to a rumor’s characteristic of ambiguity combined with our innate curiosity, it quickly spreads. Rumors are an echo of our fears. They become easier to believe when it connects with our fears. A rumor is like the fertilizer for a plant- it nourishes our deep and hidden fears, turning what was once just a fright, into reality. Psychologist, Robert H. Knapp in his article “A Psychology of Rumor,” calls this ‘the bogie rumor-’ “[that] which derives from our fear and anxiety” (361). My childhood days in the Philippines, I went to a Catholic elementary school for a few years. There was a rumor (although I wasn’t aware of this term then) of nuns haunting the school. It was believed by most that a long time ago many of the nuns were decapitated. Their heads were supposedly buried in the schools’ present-day tennis courts. Every time I’d step on the tennis court during P.E class, my body felt uneasy; I was quite positive it was a ghosts’ presence, maybe one of the founding nuns of the school, prodding me to become a nun. Our minds are powerful, aren’t they? They are easily manipulated by fear. In hearing the ghost rumor, my mind was immediately consumed by dark and morbid thoughts. The horror movies I’ve watched, scary tales I’ve heard and all the spooky images stored up in my head- conspired with the group of the ghost-nuns imagery- to bring forth a vicious, yet surprisingly, plausible situation. In hindsight, it was
Like Wild Fire; How a Rumor Consumes and Spreads Did you hear what happened to ______(insert a famous person or someone in your network)? This question never seems to leave us unfazed. It immediately lures us in the trap of rumor and will not let us go. Like a tumor, a rumor quickly spreads. Rumor is a circulating story or information that is unverified; it is a reflection of our worldview. An example we will talk about is fear. The fears that easily grip our hearts shows how rumor becomes active, then, due to a rumor’s characteristic of ambiguity combined with our innate curiosity, it quickly spreads. Rumors are an echo of our fears. They become easier to believe when it connects with our fears. A rumor is like the fertilizer for a plant- it nourishes our deep and hidden fears, turning what was once just a fright, into reality. Psychologist, Robert H. Knapp in his article “A Psychology of Rumor,” calls this ‘the bogie rumor-’ “[that] which derives from our fear and anxiety” (361). My childhood days in the Philippines, I went to a Catholic elementary school for a few years. There was a rumor (although I wasn’t aware of this term then) of nuns haunting the school. It was believed by most that a long time ago many of the nuns were decapitated. Their heads were supposedly buried in the schools’ present-day tennis courts. Every time I’d step on the tennis court during P.E class, my body felt uneasy; I was quite positive it was a ghosts’ presence, maybe one of the founding nuns of the school, prodding me to become a nun. Our minds are powerful, aren’t they? They are easily manipulated by fear. In hearing the ghost rumor, my mind was immediately consumed by dark and morbid thoughts. The horror movies I’ve watched, scary tales I’ve heard and all the spooky images stored up in my head- conspired with the group of the ghost-nuns imagery- to bring forth a vicious, yet surprisingly, plausible situation. In hindsight, it was
References: Difonzo, Nicholas. “How Rumors Help Us Make Sense of an Uncertain World.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Twelfth Edition. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2008. 375-386. Print. Doorley, John and Garcia, Helio Fred. “Managing Rumors.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Twelfth Edition. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2008. 397-401. Print. Knapp, Robert H. “A Psychology of Rumor.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Twelfth Edition. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2008. 360-361. Print. Rockwell, Norman. “The Gossips.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Twelfth Edition. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2008. 344. Print. Salmans, Sandra. “Fighting That Old Devil Rumor.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Twelfth Edition. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2008. 356-358. Print.