COLLECTIVE DELUSION, RUMORS, GOSSIP, URBAN LEGENDS, & PROPAGANDA
Collective Delusion used to be called "mass hysteria" but after extensive study, it became clear that what we were seeing was neither hysterical nor did it occur in a mass. The accepted term to describe the widespread belief of something that clearly is not true... is collective delusion.
Elvis Lives?
Today’s question was “15% of Americans seriously believe what?”
Some of the answers:
§ They will be abducted by aliens.
§ They have been abducted by aliens.
§ The moon landings were faked.
But the correct answer was 15% of Americans seriously believe Elvis lives.
When "War of the Worlds" was broadcast on the radio, the public response was collective delusion not panic or mass hysteria
RUMOR: Unverifiable information that is passed informally from anonymous sources. A rumor can be about a person, place, or thing. The content can be true or false, good or bad. Rumor is both a product & a process that develops in a social context
Tamotsu Shibutani says rumor is a substitute for hard news, not necessarily true or false. Humans have a strong need for information and will always seek it out. When there is little anxiety and some information available, people tend to think more critically about the credibility of the information. But, when faced with ambiguity and normal channels are not functioning — there is high anxiety, we see a proliferation of extemporaneous rumoring. In these situations, people are much more willing to believe any information they hear…
- Low anxiety, some news available: CRITICAL DELIBERATION
- High anxiety, little news available: EXTEMPORANEOUS
Shibutani also argues that people play different roles in the spreading of rumor. Shibutani's Participants:
1) Messenger (spreads the rumor)
2) Interpreter (gives meaning to the rumor)
3) Doubter/Doubtful (is the skeptic; cautions)
4) Protagonist (is gung-ho!)
5) Auditor (stays in the background; not invested)
6) Decision-maker (advocates a course of action)
Allport & Postman say rumor is always inaccurate, exaggerated and dangerously simplified. Rumor is passed through Serial Transmission (like the telephone game):
1) Leveling: Simplification; details dropped out
2) Sharpening: Salience of what is dropped & what stays
3) Assimilation: Details contribute to central theme
Basic Law of Rumor: Rumor relieves tension of uncertainty associated with a lack of information. Rumoring is more intense when the need to know is greater and less information is available.
Smelser: Of the 6 preconditions, Generalized Belief and Mobilization for Action are most often associated with rumor
Turner & Killian: New norms develop through rumoring and it can be “Mild or Wild.” Rumoring also involves mutual role-taking (empathy). Also important are:
Selective Definition: This refers to what messages are accepted or rejected.
The process occurs through:
1) Keynoting: leader sets boundaries
2) Symbolization: Clear, simple, emotional symbols
3) Coordination: Moves to action or inaction
TYPES OF RUMORS
Product Rumors
Atrocity Rumors
Disaster Rumors
Urban Legend: A rumor that sounds quite true with a message or moral
Propaganda: Rumors intended to change attitudes and/or behavior
Gossip: Rumors about people
One of the most widely known product rumors in the US began in 1980 with a rumor (urban legend) that the company Proctor & Gamble was giving money to the Church of Satan. It was argued that the company logo was a satanic symbol. The 'proof' comes from a Bible passage (Revelation 12:1), which states:
"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Since P&G's logo consists of a man's face on a moon surrounded by thirteen stars, some have claimed that the logo is a mockery of the heavenly symbol alluded to in the aforementioned verse, and hence the logo is Satanic. Where the beard meets the surrounding circle, a mirror image of 666 can be seen when viewed from inside the logo, and this has been interpreted as the reflected number of the beast, again linked to Satanism. Also, there are two horns like a lamb that are said to represent the false prophet.
These interpretations have been denied by company officials for the past 27 years and even changed the logo but the stories still persist. There is no evidence linking the company to the Church of Satan or any other occult organization. The company has sued and attempted to sue a number of companies and individuals who have spread rumors of this type, in some instances because they sell competitive products and have spread such rumors for the purpose of tarnishing P&G's image to increase sales of their own brands (e.g., Amway).
An example of one such rumor was that the president of P&G had appeared on a Saturday edition of the Phil Donahue show, and declared that he was a Satanist and that the company's logo was Satanic. This rumor circulated despite the facts that the company's president has never made such a statement in public; had never appeared on Phil Donahue's show; and that Donahue's show does not run on Saturdays (see Zellner for more details)
Follow up:
In 1997, Procter & Gamble filed the most recent in a series of lawsuits against Amway Corporation and several of its distributors for allegedly spreading rumors to the effect that P&G, maker of familiar household products such as Mr. Clean and Tide laundry detergent, is affiliated with the Church of Satan.
CINCINNATI, March 19, 2007 – The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) today announced that it won a jury trial on March 16 in Federal District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah, against four Amway distributors for spreading false rumors about the company to advance their own business. P&G was awarded $19.25 million.
(source: Snopes, P&G Website)
Did you ever play The Telephone Game when you were a child? The next time you are in a gathering of friends, see if you can get the game started and note the results. It is a great illustration of how rumors travel and how they change!
GOSSIP
Whether or not this is fact doesn't matter. It's that the story is about a person that makes it gossip. Example: Paul McCartney’s tragic death in 1969)
Functions of Gossip:
1) Integration of Group or Community (being "in the know")
2) Affirmation of Moral Code (sanctions inappropriate behavior)
3) Competition Between Groups (racial or religious discrimination)
4) Enables Social Comparison (see, my life is healthier than that of a movie star!)
(Do Not Turn In)
1. Who gossips more, men or women?
2. Why is it so much fun to gossip?
(answer to #1: research shows that both men and women spend about two thirds of the time gossiping. A difference was found between what men and women gossip about. Women tend to gossip about other people’s social experiences, men gossip mainly about their own. In other words, women are networking and men are advertising.)
PROPAGANDA
Propaganda consists of the planned use of any form of public or mass-produced communication designed to affect the minds and emotions of a given group for a specific purpose, whether military, economic, or political.
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony. 1954. Psychological Warfare, 1954, Combat Forces Press, Washington (p. 39)
Another way to think of propaganda is that it is rumor with the goal of changing attitudes/behavior
The modern political sense of the term "propaganda" dates from World War I, and was not originally pejorative. Propaganda techniques were first codified and applied in a scientific manner by journalist Walter Lippman and psychologist Edward Bernays (nephew of Sigmund Freud) early in the 20th century.
During World War I, Lippman and Bernays both worked for the Committee for Public Information, which was created by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to sway popular opinion to enter the war in support of Britain. The committee's pro-war propaganda campaign resulted in a kind of anti-German hysteria within six months. Its success impressed a number of different interests, including American business and Adolf Hitler. The potential of large-scale propaganda to control public opinion was demonstrated. Bernays coined the terms "group mind" and "engineering consent", important concepts in practical propaganda work.
§ war
§ political campaigns
§ economics
§ business
Atrocity Rumors fall into this category. A particular favorite of mine is Alfie's stamp collection. Here is a WWII version:
1944
A family in Boise, Idaho had a son in the military, in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. They received a letter from him, in which he asked them to be sure to save the stamp, he thought his little brother Alfie would like to add it to his stamp collection. This puzzled the family because they had no son named Alfie. They soaked off the stamp. Under the stamp he had written, "They have cut out my tongue."
The origin of the story goes back to the American Civil War in 1866. In those early days the maimed serviceman was a Confederate lad held in a northern prison camp. Under the stamp on the letter home to his momma was found the first grisly message: "My God! They've cut out my tongue."
Atrocity rumors are never new; they are merely retooled as circumstances change. In the ramp-updays towards the Gulf War, we were told Iraqi soldiers had rampaged through a Kuwaiti hospital, grabbing premature babies up out of incubators and tossing them to the floor to meet their deaths on the cold, hard tiles. Never mind that this apocryphal hospital was never pinpointed nor the grieving families of these infants located, the story spread like wildfire, inflaming passions against the Iraqis and stiffening resolve to fight them tooth and nail if it came down to that. [Columbia Journalism Review, 1992]
Tokyo Rose is something of an urban legend -- a fictional person cobbled together from scraps of real history. There's no proof that such a woman existed, although one woman was convicted of treason as Tokyo Rose.
“Tokyo Rose”
During World War II, American soldiers dubbed the female broadcasters on Japanese radio, "Tokyo Rose." It was a name invented by the soldiers -- U.S. government research never found evidence of a person named Tokyo Rose in radio programs anywhere in the Pacific. The voice of Tokyo Rose was said to have taunted Allied forces during the war, hurting morale.
Falsely accused Iva Toguri
TYPES OF PROPAGANDA
Common methods for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, theater, books, leaflets, movies, radio, television, and posters.
Print propaganda during wartime continues to play an important role in influencing beliefs. War propaganda is used to confuse and demoralize enemies and also to influence public opinions in friendly countries. Often, a nation at war uses propaganda to influence its own citizens.
Pro-Iraqi poster showing a decisive leader
North Korean soldier smashing the US Capitol
White Propaganda: is issued from an acknowledged source... This type of propaganda is associated with overt psychological operations.
Grey Propaganda: May be true of false information; does not clearly identify any source
Black Propaganda: Disinformation; purports to emanate from a source other than the true one. This type of propaganda is associated with covert psychological operations.
Beirut-based Reuters freelance photographer Adnan Hajj enhanced his image of smoke rising from burning buildings after an Israeli air strike on the suburbs of Beirut August 5, 2006 to make things look worse. This is a form of propaganda. (Source: AP - Mon Aug 7, 8:48 PM ET )
Example of Black Propaganda from WWII:
Guard Against Venereal Diseases
Lately there has been a great increase in the number of venereal diseases among our officers and men owing to prolific contacts with Filipino women of dubious character.
Due to hard times and stricken conditions brought about by the Japanese occupation of the islands, Filipino women are willing to offer themselves for a small amount of foodstuffs. It is advisable in such cases to take full protective measures by use of condoms, protective medicines, etc.; better still to hold intercourse only with wives, virgins, or women of respective [sic] character.
Furthermore, in view of the increase in pro-American leanings, many Filipino women are more than willing to offer themselves to American soldiers, and due to the fact that Filipinos have no knowledge of hygiene, disease carriers are rampant and due care must be taken.
U.S. Army
Do you believe the source of this information to be the US Army? Was it distributed to American troops? It was actually dropped on Filipinos by the Japanese. The Japanese propagandists wanted Filipinos to believe that the United States was the origin of this derogatory material, thereby reducing cooperation with the United States. Source: Psychological Warfare, page 123).
The film "Atomic Cafe" is highly recommended in its portrayal of US propaganda directed toward its own citizens during the Cold War era
Propaganda efforts often "backfire" as in this recent case:
Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged
by Deb Riechmann, AP/
October 14th, 2005
WASHINGTON - It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution. U.S. President George W. Bush waves to members of the 42nd Infantry Division (Mechanized) National Guard unit stationed in Tikrit, Iraq, via video teleconference hookup from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex October 13, 2005. REUTERS/Staff
"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."
Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote and efforts to train Iraqi troops.
As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit the birthplace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
A brief rehearsal ensued.
"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"
"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.
"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.
"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.
And so it went.
"If the question comes up about partnering ? How often do we train with the Iraqi military ? who does he go to?" Barber asked. "That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.
"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit, the hometown, and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.