Why can rumors be everywhere? And so many people have been harmed by rumors? Why do people have to believe rumors? Can't they just ignore them?

Third, the study of rumors is mainly to explore the nature and regularity of this phenomenon. The vague concepts and diverse wording are not conducive to the in-depth discussion. On the contrary, many similar concepts are combined into The features are extracted to facilitate finding the nature and connections between this type of phenomena.

Therefore, for the phenomenon of spreading untrue words, rumors are more connotative concepts, while complaints, folk songs, gossip, etc. are denotative concepts. In this article's study of rumors, various forms of expression specifically referred to by the above words are involved.

The birth of rumors

To study rumors, we naturally have to start from the source of the rumors. From the perspective of the origin of rumors, rumors can be divided into two types according to the intention of the rumor maker: active fabrication and unintentional triggering. The specific division will be determined according to the motives of the rumor makers.

The motivations of the rumor makers

The rumor makers are the initiators of the birth of rumors, especially the rumors that have a bad impact, which are closely connected with the purpose of the rumor makers. Without rumormongers, there would be no rumors. Classifying the types of rumors based on the motivations of the rumor makers is the best way to explore the origins of rumors.

First, complaining rumors.

When some of people’s wishes are not met, a sense of complaint will arise. Complaints expressed are complaints. If this kind of complaint is directly directed at the object of complaint, it is a rebuke and complaint; but if it is not directed at the object of complaint, it can easily turn into rumors.

The complaining target of complaining rumors is often not a specific person, but an environment, society or group. When dissatisfied people cannot find a clear target to vent their emotions, they will express their emotions to their peers. For example, there is an unhealthy trend of "going through the back door" in society. Common people without connections or power are often bullied or treated unequally. Common people Will show dissatisfaction, but can't find a clear target to blame.

From these ballads, we can truly and carefully grasp the social mentality of the people.

There are many such folk songs. Their common feature is that they capture certain abnormal phenomena in social life, exaggerate, amplify or even distort them, and the rumor spreaders gain something from the spread of rumors. Emotional satisfaction.

The misinterpretation of economic work as the center has weakened party building, so there is a saying that "the central government is the ruling party, the local governments are the liberal parties, the enterprises are the opposition parties, and the rural areas are the underground parties."

The extreme personal goal of making big money has led to apathy between people. Some people even began to miss life in the 1950s and 1960s, and made up a folk song, "People in the 1950s loved others, and people in the 60s loved others." In the 1970s, people helped others, in the 1980s, everyone looked after others. "

Folk songs are a visual expression of the emotions and mentality of the people, and while the people are concerned about their own interests, they are also concerned about government officials. They are most concerned about every move and have the greatest opinions. Many ballads have sharply criticized corruption, abuse of power, etc.

These rumors are a reflection of social emotions. Just as the rumor makers cannot find accurate contradictions to vent, we cannot find the accurate rumor makers. We can only understand the emotions of the people. Of course, if these rumors enter the field of mass communication, they may have an impact that goes far beyond the grumbling nature of interpersonal communication, and will change their original meaning both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Second, offensive rumors.

Different from complaining rumors, which are completely emotional and purposeless discussions, offensive rumors have a very clear purpose and target. The rumor makers have carefully studied the target and target of the attack before spreading the rumor. information about the environment in which they are located, and then put forward certain rumors in a targeted manner to achieve the purpose of harming the target of the attack.

Offensive rumors can be further divided into hostile attacks and jealous attacks according to the intensity of the attack purpose. The former is a means of struggle used in a state of war or when two forces are in tit-for-tat confrontation, while the latter is an unfair means of competition against the best in the group.

The thirty-third stratagem in the Chinese classic "Thirty-six Strategies" is a counter-intentional stratagem. It says, "Doubts within doubts. If you compare yourself with yourself, you will not lose yourself." This means that within the enemy's interior, Set up a suspicious formation to facilitate our victory.

Since ancient times, military strategists have used counter-clocking and the method they use is offensive rumors.

Chapter 91 of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" records a story about Zhuge Liang using counterintuitive tactics to get rid of Sima Yi. At that time, Cao Pi, the leader of Wei, had just died and his son Cao Rui came to the throne. Ma Su suggested to Zhuge Liang, "Although Sima Yi is a minister of the Wei State, Cao Rui is suspicious of him. Why not secretly send people to Luoyang, Ye County and other places to spread rumors that this person wants to rebel? He also made Sima Yi's announcement to the world and posted it all over the world." Department: It makes Cao Rui suspicious and he will definitely kill this person. "Zhuge Liang accepted Ma Su's suggestion and did what he said. Sure enough, Sima Yi was "resigned and returned to his hometown."

This kind of deliberate rumormonger attaches great importance to studying the weaknesses of the target of attack. In this rumor, Zhuge Liang grasped: first, Sima Yi held a large number of troops and was suspected of shocking his master due to his high achievements; second, Cao Rui, the leader of Wei, was "always suspicious" of Sima Yi. Therefore, when the rumor spread, Cao Rui was "shocked and asked the ministers urgently", but no one among the ministers had a good word for him. Someone mentioned Cao Cao's evaluation of Sima Yi: "Sima Yi looks down upon the wolf and cannot be ignored." If he is given military power, it will be a disaster for the country in the long run. "Some people said: "Sima Yi is well versed in military strategy and has great ambitions. If he is not eliminated early, it will be a disaster for the country in the long run." From this, Zhuge Liang's rumors were successful in one fell swoop. , successfully alienated the enemy general and got rid of one of his strong enemies.

Just imagine, if Zhuge Liang had not seized on Sima Yi's weakness, but instead spread rumors that the other party was greedy for pleasure, he would not have caused such great harm to his opponent.

In addition to this kind of hostile attacks, jealous attacks occur most frequently in daily life. It seems that outstanding people in any group will be criticized to a certain extent and can easily become the center of rumors.

This kind of rumors can be divided into two types according to whether the rumor maker comes from within the group or outside the group: one is jealousy within the group, and the other is jealousy outside the group. For some members of the public or well-known figures, jealous rumors often come from both inside and outside the group.

This phenomenon occurred from time to time in the factory directors of some state-owned enterprises in the early stages of reform. Once a factory director took some reform measures and achieved certain results, he was criticized by superior leaders, peer units, and news media. As you wait for outside attention, your reputation and honors will increase day by day, and sometimes you will receive generous material rewards from the outside world. These will arouse the jealousy of some people. Anonymous complaints or spreading rumors have become common methods used by jealous people with unhealthy mentality. At the same time, any reform will inevitably involve the redistribution of interests, so the party whose interests are harmed in this redistribution will become the basic soil for the spread of rumors. This has caused many reformers to find themselves in difficulty soon after the initial boldness. On the one hand, a letter of complaint can make superior leaders have concerns about supporting their reforms; on the other hand, a small rumor can dampen the enthusiastic support of the masses.

Offensive rumors are a manifestation of the purpose of the individual or group that spreads the rumors. Compared with the complaining rumors, the target of the rumors is very clear, and the rational element in making the rumors increases.

Offensive rumors are very common in international communication. In order to create public opinion against opponents, completely false news can become the main content of dissemination.

In 1930, a researcher wrote an article exposing British propaganda during World War I. The article reads, "Atrocity reports were a major element of British propaganda. Most of these reports were accepted by an unquestioning public. If they had witnessed how the most tragic reports of atrocities were reported at the headquarters of the British Ministry of Intelligence in the spring of 1917 out of the cage, they might not be so receptive to stories about German terror.