Rumor Mills: The Social Impact of Rumor and Legend

283 Pages·2005·1.398 MB·English

by  Fine Gary Alan, Campion-Vincent Véronique, Heath Chip

First published 2005 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2004005426
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rumor mills : the social impact of rumor and legend / editors, Gary Alan
Fine, Véronique Campion-Vincent and Chip Heath.
p.cm.—(Social problems and social issues)
ISBN 0-202-30746-8 (cloth: alk. paper)—ISBN 0-202-30747-6 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Rumor. I. Fine, Gary Alan. II. Campion-Vincent, Veronique.
III. Heath, Chip. IV. Series.
HM1241.R86 2004
302.2'4—dc22 2004005426
ISBN 13: 978-0-202-30747-3 (pbk)
Contents
Contributors ix
Rumor Matters: An Introductory Essay 1
Gary Alan Fine
I THE SOCIALPRODUCTION OF CONFLICT AND PREJUDICE
Introduction 11
Véronique Campion-Vincent
1 Dramatic Rumors and Truthful Appearances:
The Medieval Myth of Ritual Murder by Proxy 15
Jody Enders
2 Rumors in Times of War and Cataclysm:
AHistorical Perspective 31
Galit Hasan-Rokem
3 Rumors and Religious Riots 53
Sudhir Kakar
4 Mafia in Meran?: Rumors and Legends Surrounding the
“Leather Connection”: ACase Study 61
Ingo Schneider
v
vi Contents
II THE SPREAD OF RUMORS
Introduction 81
Chip Heath
5 Psychological Motivations in Rumor Spread 87
Prashant Bordia and Nicholas DiFonzo
6 From Evil Others to Evil Elites: ADominant Pattern
in Conspiracy Theories Today 103
Véronique Campion-Vincent
7 Legend/AntiLegend: Humor as an Integral Part of the
Contemporary Legend Process 123
Bill Ellis
8 How Rumor Begets Rumor: Collective Memory, Ethnic
Conflict, and Reproductive Rumors in Cameroon 141
Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Flavien T. Ndonko, and Song Yang
9 The Effects of Legends, Rumors, and Related
Genres on Audiences 159
Rainer Wehse
III THE CREATION OF PLAUSIBILITY
Introduction 169
Patricia A. Turner
10 Fashion, Topical Jokes, and Rumor as Short-Term Enthusiasms 173
Joel Best
11 Celebrating Arabs and Grateful Terrorists: Rumor and the
Politics of Plausibility 189
Gary Alan Fine and Irfan Khawaja
Contents vii
12 Beyond Rumor and Legend: Some Aspects of
Academic Communication 207
Sandy Hobbs
13 Negatory Rumors: From the Denial of Reality to
Conspiracy Theory 223
Jean-Bruno Renard
14 Social Construction and Social Consequences:
Rumors and Evidence 241
Luise White
Conclusion—Rumor and Legend: Seven Questions 255
Chip Heath, Véronique Campion-Vincent, and Gary Alan Fine
Index 265

Contributors
Joel Best is Professor and Chair of the University of Delaware’s Depart-
ment of Sociology and Criminal Justice. His books include Threatened Chil-
dren (1990), Random Violence (1999), Damned Lies and Statistics (2001), and
More Damned Lies and Statistics(2004). His current research concerns insti-
tutional fads.
Prashant Bordia is a Senior Lecturer in organizational psychology at the
University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests include psy-
chological motivations in rumor spread, rumor and the process of group
problem-solving, and consumer reactions to product-related rumors and
rumor denials. He was the recipient of 2004 University of Queensland
Foundation early career research excellence award.
Véronique Campion-Vincent is a folklorist at the Maison des Sciences de
l’Homme, Paris, France, who approaches rumors and contemporary leg-
ends as sociological and anthropological facts. She has published two
books with Jean-Bruno Renard: Légendes urbaines: Rumeurs d’aujourd’hui
(1992) and De source sûre: Nouvelles rumeurs d’aujourd’hui(2002). Several of
her analyses examine rumors of animal-release; other analyses study
organ-theft narratives. Her English-language publications also include
articles in ARV: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore, Fabula, Folklore, Journal of Folklore
Research,and Western Folklore.
Nicholas DiFonzo Associate Professor of Psychology at Rochester Insti-
tute of Technology. He was recipient of the Marianthi Georgoudi Disserta-
tion Award for philosophical and theoretical contributions to the field of
psychology. DiFonzo has published numerous academic articles on the
topic of rumor and has given several seminars on managing rumor to busi-
ness audiences. DiFonzo and Bordia are currently serving as expert wit-
nesses for the Procter & Gamble Corporation on the topic of the famous
(and false) Satanism rumor and product rumors.
ix