Rumor, Gossip and Urban Legends by DiFonzo & Bordia (2007) - Article

Both scholars and laypeople use the terms gossip and urban legend interchangeably with rumour. People often rate a rumour and a gossip identically. Also, at conferences, scholars have debated whether rumour and legend and rumour and gossip are two different things. The construct of rumour has been become more clear, but there still remains some ambiguity. According to the writers, important differences do exist. The writers distinguish the three things from each other and they state that the difficulties have arisen because people haven’t paid much attention on the context, the function and contents of these three things. That’s why they will do it in their article.

Rumour

A rumour can be seen as a statement that is unverified and instrumentally relevant and this goes on from one person to the next. It arises in ambiguous, dangerous or threatening contexts and it’s function is to help people make sense out of things. The context looks at the situation or the need out of which the rumour arises, the function looks at what people are trying to accomplish by rumouring and the content looks at the types of statements given.

Contexts of rumours

As mentioned before, the contexts that rumours arise from are ambiguous and threatening, but also contexts in which people feel a need for security or understanding. People want to understand things, otherwise they will feel uncomfortable. When the meaning of a situation is not readily understood, it’s said to be ambiguous. When people think that their well-being is at risk, when they are in danger, when they are afraid to lose their belongings or money and when security is weak they may feel threatened and this is another brewing ground for rumours. The threat may also be psychological in nature: the self is threatened or one’s identity is threatened. The self can be threatened when a person’s self-esteem is reduced, but the collective sense of self (one’s social identity, the group to which one belongs) may also be threatened.

Functions

The functions of rumours are to make sense in ambiguous situations. A person first tries to make sense of a certain situation individually, but when this doesn’t work, he/she will discuss and evaluate ideas with other people. These collective ideas and discussions are rumours. People don’t want to be confused and they use rumours to collectively make sense out of the unclear things happening in their lives. People seek information and as a group, want to be able to interpret their situational contexts. Rumours also have a function to manage threats. When people feel threatened, they try to control the situation. Rumours can offer primary control (when hearing that there is going to be a flood within the next day, one leaves the town) but also secondary control. This secondary control helps the person to interpret the threatening situation in another way. Often, it helps reduce the emotional impact. According to research, rumours primarily offer this type of control: wish rumours. Rumours may give people hope. Rumours also defend one’s self-esteem. This is often done by spreading negative rumours about the threat.

For example, an employee who is upset with his boss for making stupid jokes about him, spreads a nasty rumour about his boss. Rumours defend against harm to your individual sense of self or your collective sense of self. Rumours about the group that is hurting your group, makes you feel better about your own group. These rumours are also called wedge-driving rumours. Rumours can also have other functions, like entertainment, but this is not the rumour’s primary role.

Content

Rumours give information and thus, they are declarative statements. The rumour is an informative idea and it states, describes and tells about something. Also, these informative statements are passed from one person to other persons. A rumour is transmitted. This transmission can have different configurations: serial (Anna tells Bob, Bob tells Claire, and so on, with or without discussion), cluster (Anna tells a cluster of people and this cluster of people tell one or more people) or multiply interactive (active recirculation of the rumour). Participants in rumours see rumours as having a relevant outcome. Rumours are not seen as primary amusing pieces of information (gossip) or tales with a moral lesson (legends). Sometimes they are as news message, as they contain new pieces of information that people can use to deal with their situation effectively. Another characteristic of rumours is that they are unverified. Most rumours don’t have a secure basis of evidence. Often, rumours are also followed by cautionary statements, like ‘I’m not completely sure that this is true, but…’. Some rumours are passed along as facts, so without the cautionary statements. A rumour may turn out to be true, but what qualifies it as a rumour is that the evidence for the rumour’s verification is not that tight.

Gossip

A gossip can be seen as an evaluative social talk about people. Gossips arise in social network formation and also serve social network functions, like entertainment, establishing group norms, group cohesion, group membership and power structure.

Contexts

Gossip often arises in situations of social isolation and the person feels a need to belong. Isolation is not healthy for humans and that’s why we are motivated to belong and to form bonds with others. This can be done by creating and sustaining a network of social relationships for oneself. Gossip helps people to change or maintain their social networks. Gossip is often about some features about the social network, like specific members in the network, bonds in the network or the network as a whole.

Functions

As previously mentioned, gossip can be used to change and maintain social network functions. Gossip can be used to learn information about other people in the network and it enables networks to become larger. You can gossip about someone who you have never met before. Gossip also bonds people to each other and in that way, it helps build the social network. People bond over funny stories or extravagant tales and gossip helps us to gain friendships. However, bonds can also be broken by gossip. Negative gossip can result in the ostracizing of another person. Gossip can also enhance one’s social status.

By telling negative stories about another person, you present yourself in a better light. Research on sororities has found that high-frequency gossipers were more active and influential in the sorority than low- and medium-frequency gossipers.

Gossip also helps us to remain part of the social network by letting us know what the group norms are. This is often done by social comparison with other people. If someone says that Jane is a slut, then you will try to not behave or dress like Jane, otherwise you might also get ostracized.

Content

Gossip is usually a negative social chat. It can be positive, but most gossip is slanderous and derogative in nature. Gossip is often also about an individual behaviour in personal spheres of life.

Rumour and gossip

Both rumour and gossip are unofficial communications and they are both used to get valued assets. Rumours are unverified and useful informative statements, while gossip is a social chat. Rumours are seen as more urgent than gossip, rumours are unverified, while gossip may have solid foundations of evidence and rumours may or may not concern individuals, while gossip is always about the private lives of individuals. However, some forms are hard to categorize as either rumour or gossip, like Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Urban legends

Urban legends are stories about certain events that relate to real life. The senders of the story tell it like it did or may have happened and the story contains some moral rule. Urban legends have to do with modern subjects, not with traditional thins (knights, princesses).

Contexts

People are motivated to find and make meaning out of the world. Urban legends may have a function in meaning-making. So, they arise in contexts where people make meaning through storytelling. Social gatherings, internet chats and campfire stories, among others, give a person the opportunity to tell these kind of stories. The most important use for urban legends, is to make meaning out of something, as opposed to the need to understand (rumours) or the need to belong (gossip).

Functions

Urban legends tell tales that promote moral values. They also amuse us. These stories set examples from which people can draw moral rules, and they sometimes also focus on warnings and promises. Urban legends often contain funny or horrible elements, making it more amusing.

Content

All urban legends contain a setting, plot, climax and the final resolution. The stories are funny, unusual, horrible or a combination of these. Urban legends are always about modern topics. So, they are about things that today’s citizens find interesting (dating, technology, the internet).

Rumours and urban legends

Both rumours and urban legends are verbal expressions that have come into existence through collective processes. They are also both unofficial information pieces. However, rumours may be useful information statements that arise in threatening or confusing situations and people use rumours to make sense of these situations. Urban legends are used to give meaning to the world. Rumours try to make sense of more specific and urgent things than urban legends do. Rumours are short bits of information, specific to a date and time, while urban legends are like stories.