From ancient times to the present, there has never been a shortage of rumors.
Nowadays, due to the development and convenience of communication methods, rumors spread faster, wider and more deeply.
Tencent’s True Platform and Tencent Index released the most complete rumor list in August 2017. Based on the characteristics of the rumors, the spread of the rumors on the entire network, and their harmfulness, they sorted out the top ten medical and health rumors, the top ten Food safety myths, top 10 social, scientific and other myths.
Let’s take a look at the rumor list first. Which ones have you or your family and friends fallen into?
It is not difficult to find that the keywords summarized in the 10 rumors include "toxin", "cancer", "poisoning", "preservative", "carcinogen", etc.
Let’s look at medical and health rumors.
Keywords include: "cancer", "fertility", "smoking", "drinking", etc. The subjects involved include children, the elderly, men, and women.
Keywords involved in social sciences: "earthquake", "universe", "radiation", "network tracking", "mobile phone", "leukemia", etc.
Why are rumors so prevalent?
In other words, why do ordinary people easily believe and spread such statements and online content?
When discussing this issue, the rumor spreading formula needs to be used.
Communication scholar Cross proposed this formula: Rumor = importance (of the event) × ambiguity (of the event) × public critical ability.
The rumor formula points out that the generation of rumors is directly proportional to the importance and ambiguity of the event. The more important and ambiguous the event, the greater the effect of the rumor. When importance and ambiguity approach zero, rumors will no longer occur. The reason why an event causes rumors indicates that it has a certain degree of importance and ambiguity. The higher the relevance of the event to people's immediate interests, the greater the uncertainty of the information, and the greater the space for rumors to breed and spread.
The importance of the event refers to the content. Among the above three types of rumors, the topics involved are closely related to people’s life, work, and health. People have a natural curiosity and attention to such topics, and thus have strong sensitivity.
Topics such as "food safety" and "medical health" are closely related to people's daily lives, and naturally attract a lot of attention. In addition, this also reflects that there is still room for improvement in the fields of food safety and medical care.
In terms of event ambiguity, it refers to the transparency and channels of communication. Often the information source and arrangement of rumors are vague, and they are not released through official channels.
There is a classic fairy tale "Dong Dong is coming" that is a good explanation. A rabbit ran away in panic after hearing an unknown noise, and then passed it to the next rabbit, and then passed it to ten, and then to a hundred, so the unknown sound turned into a terrifying monster "dong dong".
It is worth noting that in recent years, rumors spread on the Internet are often arranged to "seem to be true", and the locations, people, consequences, etc. of the events involved are written in detail. Such highly realistic information Easily accepted and trusted, leading to widespread dissemination.
For example, the rumors of "a five-year-old girl contracted liver cancer because she loved eating instant noodles" and "an 81-year-old man suffered cardiac arrest after eating 15 dates" involve specific identities of the characters and relatively detailed content of the events.
So, what are the types of spread and interpretation of rumors?
1. There is a misunderstanding.
"A 5-year-old girl contracted liver cancer because she loved to eat instant noodles." Cancer in children is not uncommon and is mainly related to genetics. The instant noodles mentioned are mainly unhealthy due to their single nutrition, high oil and salt content, but there is no conclusive evidence that eating too much instant noodles will cause liver cancer.
2. Fabrication
"FDA announced that nicotine has nothing to do with causing cancer, overturning the conclusion that smoking is harmful to health" is a typical fabrication.
3. Alarmism
“Durian mixed with milk can cause caffeine poisoning” is alarmism. Durian and milk do not contain caffeine, so eating them together will cause caffeine poisoning.
4. There is an inaccuracy
"Beer and seafood cannot be eaten together, otherwise it will cause gout." For people with gout symptoms, any high-purine foods, including seafood, should be avoided, as should alcohol. But it doesn’t mean that adding beer to seafood will increase uric acid and cause gout.
5. Misattribution
"81-year-old man suffered cardiac arrest after eating 15 dates." The old man was originally a patient with chronic renal failure. Just because eating dates caused cardiac arrest, he did not In line with common sense of medical cause and effect.
6. Title party
"Scientists have confirmed that chemical fiber carpets, non-stick pans, etc. may affect female fertility" is completely replacing the original scientific research with alarmist headlines. Most current online articles rely on their titles to attract attention.
7 Quotes out of context
"AIDS was successfully developed in one second." The original report was referring to experiments conducted on animals, not humans.
8. Re-hyping old news
"A coffee chain admitted that its high points contain carcinogenic rubber sole raw materials" is a re-hyping of a 2014 news about food safety.
9 Exaggerating the facts
"Grapes using ripening agents cannot be eaten." In fact, these grapes were caused by excessive use of ripening agents, which affected the quality of the grapes and caused the brand to be damaged. damage. The emphasis is on "overdosage", not on the use of a ripening agent.
10. Making something out of nothing
"The white frost on the grapes is pesticide" is a typical example of making something out of nothing. The white frost on the grape skin is the wax of the grape, which is produced by the grape itself to prevent water evaporation and resist insect damage.
11. Lack of evidence
For example, "You cannot eat peaches and watermelon together" lacks evidence. As fruits, the main component of both is water, there are no toxic components, and eating them together will not produce any special chemical reactions. The cause of discomfort after eating may be diarrhea caused by bacteria produced during storage, but it will not lead to poisoning and death.
12. Baseless
The statement "salt is a toxin we eat every day" is simply ridiculous.
13. Wrong comparison
For example, "One cup of yogurt is equivalent to two cans of Coke" is a blind comparison of the calories and sugar content of yogurt and Coke, and ignores each cup of yogurt and Coke. The size of the capacity. Wrong comparison, the conclusion drawn in this way? Unbelievable.
14. The temptation of profit
For example, Wolf Warrior sells red envelopes to celebrate. This is taking advantage of the mentality of netizens to grab red envelopes and take advantage. Obtain private information of netizens.
The harm of rumors is self-evident: polluting the social environment, triggering social crises, damaging the image and credibility of the Internet, etc.
Many people may have felt nervous or even anxious after seeing those rumors. Regarding health and safety, they spread the word and share them out of love and care for themselves and their family and friends. Here, the kindness in human nature has become a helper in spreading rumors, which is sad.
In addition, the creators behind the rumors may make money by "spreading rumors." When ordinary people rush to tell each other about the safety of their families and work hard to forward the news, others have already made a lot of money.
So how to debunk rumors? The old saying goes, "Rumors stop with the wise." For us today, we should let rumors stop with ourselves.
1. Use science to fight back against pseudoscience. Some rumors that seem very "scientific" are actually pseudoscience and can be eliminated by professionals;
2. With the help of common sense, Many "jokes" that have been circulated for a long time are obviously against common sense;
3. Go straight to the source, and those without sources are often fake news;
4. Chase those who lack " W"'s "news", these rumors often lack time, place, people and other elements;
5. Don't believe those so-called "famous quotes";
6. Don't be blindly superstitious Be authoritative and do not take things out of context, such as misreading research published by some authoritative organizations;
7. Do not spread inflammatory content easily;
8. Stay objective and calm, and do not take advantage of small things. ;
9. Pictures do not necessarily mean the truth;
For us in the Internet age, we must not believe or spread rumors. It is important to develop good judgment and media literacy.
This is the best of times, this is the worst of times.
We enjoy the convenience of the Internet, but we are also wrapped in the darkness within it, and may unknowingly become the accomplices of the dark forces.
Rumors spread or not spread in a matter of seconds. This idea requires good common sense of life, scientific literacy, and media literacy. Improve yourself, distinguish scientifically, and accumulate in every detail.
It is very important to surf the Internet with a sense of responsibility, a pair of bright eyes, and to behave in a civilized manner.
Not believing or spreading rumors are the basic qualities of an online citizen.
This road is long and arduous, but it is closely related to everyone.