A Colorful History of Popular Delusions
363
A Colorful History of Popular Delusions
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781633881235 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Prometheus Books |
| Publication date: | 10/13/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 363 |
| File size: | 899 KB |
About the Author
Peter Hassall is a researcher, writer, stuntman, and fight choreographer. He is the author of The NZ Files: UFOs in New Zealand and he has contributed a chapter to The Martians Have Landed! A History of Media Hoaxes and Panics by Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford.
Read an Excerpt
A Colorful History of Popular Delusions
By Robert E. Bartholomew, Peter Hassall
Prometheus Books
Copyright © 2015 Robert E. Bartholomew and Peter HassallAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63388-123-5
CHAPTER 1
RUMOR AND GOSSIP: "PSSSST"
Rumors are unverified stories of perceived importance that lack substantiating evidence. They occur within a backdrop of anxiety and ambiguity, and they must contain an element of plausibility, otherwise they would be dismissed as lacking credibility and would not be passed on. Rumors are always "making the rounds," but are most common during times of crisis and uncertainty. The topic is challenging for social scientists to study because rumors are dynamic and constantly changing, giving rise to a myriad of variations. They are both frustrating to track down and complex to interpret, because while they may be true or false, they often fall somewhere in between.
While many rumors are predominantly false, they typically contain elements of truth. For instance, in 1750, when a kidnapping scare swept through Paris, it had a foundation in reality. Authorities, in an effort to clear the streets of beggars and other undesirables, had enacted a series of ordinances to address the issue, but police exceeded their authority and temporarily placed a number of children in houses of detention before they were reclaimed by their worried parents. The "missing" children fostered claims that King Louis XV was suffering from leprosy and was having children kidnapped in order to cure his condition by bathing in their blood. The scare triggered riots and angry scenes as mobs began chasing suspected kidnappers through the streets.
American sociologist Tamotsu Shibutani describes rumors as "improvised news" that spreads rapidly when demand for information exceeds the supply. This is why rumors flourish during periods of war and crises. Hence, the greater the importance and uncertainty, the more likely rumors are to appear and thrive. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, amid conflicting reports and claims, rumors of imminent terrorist attacks on US targets swirled across the United States.
Conversely, the less interest and importance in a topic, the less likely it is to generate rumors. Thus, if just prior to the world yo-yo championships, a rumor spread that the reigning champ had sprained his index finger, it is unlikely to spread like wildfire across the country, as most people would have little interest in the outcome of the competition. Yet, if your daughter was the second ranked yo-yo player in the world, lived in a yo-yo "mad" community, and was competing for a hefty cash prize, the likelihood of rumors spreading through her hometown, and the yo-yo fraternity in general, would be high.
The more likely a rumor is deemed to be true, the more likely it is to be passed on. Rumors typically last from a few days or weeks to several months. On rare occasions they can endure for years. Contrary to popular belief, the appearances of most rumors are not deliberate, malicious attempts to spread uncomplimentary information about a person or organization. In reality, the content is impossible to control and often branches in unexpected directions. Most rumors are unconsciously generated in ambiguous situations of perceived importance as people construct stories in an effort to gain certainty and reduce fear and anxiety.
Some researchers have cleverly tried to plant rumors in hopes of influencing consumer decisions to buy their product. Such attempts usually fail. For example, sociologist Richard LaPiere reports that during the Great Depression in the United States, an advertising agency paid actors to spread rumors about certain products, believing it would increase sales. In one instance, two actors would board a busy commuter train, posing as a rich businessman and his chauffeur. The pair proceeded to engage in a loud conversation about the quality of tires, with the chauffeur vigorously recommending a certain brand. Such elaborate advertising campaigns were destined to fail as the story either did not spread, or the passengers got the brands confused. Such efforts highlight the fluid, spontaneous nature of rumors and the means by which they spread — the content is difficult to influence as they tend to have "a mind of their own."
Traditionally, rumors have spread by word of mouth during face-to-face interaction. In modern times, telephones, the mass media, and Internet-based social networks have been the primary mode of spread. Rumors thrive on controversy and confusion and tend to swarm around a few key issues. Sociologist Gary Fine notes that several issues are especially rife with rumors: race and ethnicity, migration, globalization, corporate misconduct, and government corruption. Racial rumors commonly precede riots and social unrest, with their content typically reflecting popular stereotypes and mistrust between the groups involved. Rumors alleging misconduct by governments and corporations are common and often portray them as deceptive, greedy, and evil. Nowadays, these entities often have public-relations specialists who attempt to refute claims. One common, recurring rumor holds that large corporations such as McDonald's and Procter & Gamble are fronts for religious cults.
In 1947, Harvard psychologists Gordon Allport and Leo Postman published The Psychology of Rumor, the first scientific study of the field. Their pioneering work examined the origin and spread of rumors. The pair monitored rumor formation by conducting a series of controlled laboratory experiments, noting that as they are passed on with retelling, rumors become simpler and more easily understood. In observing how rumors change with retelling, they identified three processes: leveling, sharpening, and assimilation. The process of leveling refers to the tendency to either leave out certain details or eliminate them altogether. In doing so, stories tend to become shorter and more concise with retelling. Sharpening occurs when the remaining details are accentuated and made more prominent while other key information becomes more specific. The final process, assimilation, is the tendency for people to shape the emerging rumor in such a way that it is sharpened and leveled as a reflection of social and cultural stereotypes and biases. In other words, as a rumor is passed on, the content tends to increasingly reflect the expectations and beliefs of those retelling it.
A classic example of assimilation took place in the hours and days following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, as rumors questioning the loyalty of Japanese-Americans, spread quickly across the Hawaiian Islands. Such fears, while unfounded, had long been the subject of concern on the Islands as 160,000 Hawaiians had Japanese ancestry. Shibutani recounts some of the rumors, which included claims that a ring from a local high school (McKinley High) "was found on the body of a Japanese flier shot down over Honolulu; the water supply had been poisoned by the local Japanese; Japanese plantation workers had cut arrows pointing to Pearl Harbor in the cane field of Oahu; the local Japanese had been notified of the attack by an advertisement in a Honolulu newspaper on December 6; ... automobiles driven by local Japanese blocked the roads from Honolulu to Pearl Harbor; Japanese residents waved their kimonos at the pilots and signaled to them; [and] some local men were dressed in Japanese Army uniforms during the attack." Despite failing to be verified, these stories continued to persist long after the attack, especially in the mainland press. When a rumor persisted that the Pacific fleet had been destroyed in the attack, and continued to circulate across the US mainland for several months, President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt the need to give a national radio address to dispel the claims and restore public confidence.
Contemporary research on rumors has identified other key elements in their formation, not noted by Allport and Postman, including anxiety relief, and their use as a form of entertainment which elevates the teller's status. Folklorist David Samper observes that rumors also serve as a social barometer. As rumors pass from person to person, the ability to reshape the content over and over "transforms it into a collective representation of fears and anxieties." In this sense, French rumor expert Jean-Noel Kapferer views rumors as a collective problem-solving exercise through which "in the course of successive exchanges, the group tries to reconstruct the puzzle made up of scattered pieces gathered here and there. The fewer the pieces they have, the greater a role the group's unconscious plays in their interpretation; the more pieces they have, the closer their interpretation is to reality."
Social scientists have identified different types of rumors. Bogy rumors make reference to an imminent disaster such as a tsunami or flood. On February 8, 1761, minor earth tremors struck London, followed by another quake a month later, prompting rumors that a great earthquake was to strike the city on April 5 after a "psychic" predicted the calamity. Much of the city's population left for the day.
Pipe-dream rumors (sometimes referred to as magical- or wishful-thinking rumors) are stories that people hope are true. For instance, once the US bombing of the Taliban in Afghanistan began in response to the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, rumors spread that Osama bin Laden had been killed in an American-led bombing raid. Another story held that he had died of kidney failure. Yet another series of rumors had him succumbing to a lung ailment. In reality, bin Laden was alive, in reasonably good health, and eventually found living in Pakistan. There were even rumors that bin Laden was hiding in the United States.
Scapegoating rumors blame an innocent person or group for allegedly perpetrating a nefarious deed. Throughout history, Jews have often been the subject of poisoning claims. For instance, in 1321, Jews in Guienne, France, were rumored to have poisoned local wells, resulting in an estimated five thousand people being burned alive for their alleged involvement. During the Black Death which spread through Europe during the latter Middle Ages, thousands of Jews were executed following rumors that Satan was protecting them in exchange for their poisoning the wells of Christians. Shortly after September 11, 2001, there were widespread scapegoating rumors in the Arab-Islamic world that the World Trade Center attacks had been orchestrated by the Mossad (the Israeli secret service) in a cunning attempt to foul pro-Muslim sentiment for Middle Eastern countries.
Some researchers refer to diving rumors, which recur periodically, suddenly appearing and disappearing. Claims that headhunters are active in Southeast Asia are a classic example, and have waxed and waned for centuries among indigenous tribes.
Product rumors are another common type and focus on stories about popular consumer goods. In the 1950s, it was rumored that an employee at a Coca-Cola plant had suddenly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. It was eventually determined, so the account goes, that he had fallen into a large vat of Coke, and the acid dissolved his body.
Atrocity rumors are common during wartime and civil unrest and focus on the "other group" as evil-doers. When race riots exploded in Detroit during 1943, rumors spread among the African American community that several white sailors had pushed a black woman off the Belle Isle Bridge. To make matters even more incendiary, it was said that she was clutching her baby as she went over the side. Meanwhile, in the white community, a rumor spread that a black man had raped and murdered a white woman at Belle Island.
While rumors are difficult to prevent and control, psychologist Nicholas DiFonzo reports that governments and businesses can take certain steps to manage their damage. The first step is to practice "regular, rapid, and reliable communication." Rumors should not be ignored, and if they are true, they should be confirmed quickly, along with a factual description of the situation or incident. In squelching false rumors, he considers it important to avoid remarks such as "no comment," which tends to fuel uncertainly and speculation. DiFonzo states that effective refutations reduce uncertainty by offering "a clear point-by-point refutation with solid evidence." He also recommends that the authority doing the refuting should ideally be a "trusted, neutral, third party" and explain the context for why it is being issued.
The financial impact of rumors can be exceedingly costly. On April 23, 2013, a bogus tweet from a hacked Twitter account at the Associated Press claimed that US President Barack Obama had been injured after explosions had rocked the White House. This single fake tweet caused instability on the financial markets and led to a sudden plunge in the Standard and Poor's 500 Index, which lost $130 billion in a short period, although it quickly recovered.
GOSSIP
Joseph Epstein once wrote: "Listening to gossip can be likened to receiving stolen goods; it puts you in immediate collusion with the person conveying the gossip to you." Gossip comes from the Old English word godsibb (God akin) and refers to one who sponsors another in baptism or "a sponsor in God." Gossip and rumors are two distinct phenomena, although the former can lead to the latter. These separate entities are often confused by the lay public. Epstein writes that "gossip is particular, told to a carefully chosen audience, and is specifically information about other people." While gossip was once thought to have been trivial, there is now a consensus within the field that it serves important uses in everyday social life.
Gossip typically involves a moral judgement and has a variety of functions: it can entertain; help to maintain group cohesiveness; and can serve to establish, maintain, and change the norms of a group, its group power structure, and its membership.28 Rather humorously, Epstein observes that all people "seem to enjoy that conspiratorial atmosphere of intimacy in which two or three people talk about another person who isn't in the room. Usually they say things about this person that he would prefer not to have said. They might talk about his misbehaviour in any number of realms (sexual, financial, domestic, hygienic, or any other that allows for moral disapprobation) or about his ... hypocrisy, tastelessness, immodesty, [or] neuroses." Some researchers refer to proximate gossip about people we know, as opposed to distal gossip about people who we are unlikely to have met such as celebrities. Researchers have identified two fundamental types of gossip: positive and negative. These have been referred to by a variety of terms including good and bad, information sharing versus judgmental, blame versus praise, and critical versus uncritical.
Alexander Cowan offers historical insight into the shifting views of gossip over time and how it has been used to put down females. In early modern Europe, "gossip" was a negative term used by men to describe conversations among women — the content over which men had little control. "The content of these conversations was belittled in order to give greater value to the purposeful exchanges between men. These value-loaded associations persist to the present day in terms such as commérage (French) or pettegolezze (Italian), the one drawing attention to the exclusive participation of women, the other to the potentially scandalous subject matter of gossip." More recently, the study of gossip has become an acceptable topic of serious scholarly study and is no longer viewed as a predominately female phenomenon.
Rumors come from an anonymous source — hence they are unable to be verified — and help people to resolve the uncertainty by making sense of the world and better managing the risk. The spread of rumors typically occurs informally from person to person, but later may be spread through more formal communication channels such as television, radio, newspapers, or the Internet. Rumors usually reflect collective hopes and fears, and involve factual claims about people, groups, institutions, and events. They tend to be more general, more diffuse, and less personal than gossip.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Colorful History of Popular Delusions by Robert E. Bartholomew, Peter Hassall. Copyright © 2015 Robert E. Bartholomew and Peter Hassall. Excerpted by permission of Prometheus Books.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction, 9,Chapter 1: Rumor and Gossip: "Psssst", 21,
Chapter 2: Fads: The Next Big Thing, 43,
Chapter 3: Crazes: Going Overboard, 65,
Chapter 4: Manias: "What Ardently We Wish, We Soon Believe", 85,
Chapter 5: Urban Legends: Living Folklore, 103,
Chapter 6: Stampedes and Panics, 123,
Chapter 7: Anxiety Hysteria: The Power of Sudden Fear, 137,
Chapter 8: Classical Mass Hysteria: Psychological Gremlins, 157,
Chapter 9: Immediate Community Threats: Defending the Homeland, 191,
Chapter 10: Moral Panics: Imagining Our Worst Fears, 219,
Chapter 11: Riots: The Breakdown of Social Order, 239,
Chapter 12: Small-Group Panics: People Who Scared Themselves, 257,
Chapter 13: Postscript: Lessons to Heed, 289,
Notes, 295,
Index, 347,