The truth will never be the opponent of rumors.
1, Everyone is a link to rumors
There was a variety show that did not copy, which explained the generation and spread of rumors well.
For example, the first person said, “I just passed the downtown square and saw a group of people and the sound of an explosion. It seems that a car is bursting. Many people are running.”
The second person said to the third person: “I have a friend who is in the downtown square and heard the explosion. I don’t know if it was a car flat tire. Many people are running.”
The third person said to the fourth person, “My friend’s friend said that an explosion occurred in the downtown square, and some people fell down, and many people were running.”
The fourth person said to the fifth person: “I heard that an explosion occurred in the downtown square, and many people were injured or injured …”
Each one processes information in the process of dissemination, extracts information that it finds useful and understandable, and ignores information that is not useful.
Sociologists have a well-defined definition of rumors: “ A proposition related to current events, which is intended to convince people that it is generally passed on from person to person, but lacks Reliable Evidence Standards “ (Allport & Postman, 1947) .
Usually, people are more concerned about the “circulation between people” and “lack of reliable evidence”, but I think “relevant to current events” and “intended to convince people” are the most important rumors Features.
People who believe in conspiracy theories always think that rumors are made by a few bad people with ulterior motives, but in fact, each of us is a link in the chain of making and spreading rumors.
This process is the same as virus transmission.
2, the truth will never be the opponent of rumors
The infectivity and lethality of the virus are a contradiction. A virus with a high lethality, because it kills the host, cannot survive on its own, and its natural transmission is not strong.
The most powerful viruses are those with strong transmission ability. In order to resist human immunity, the virus must constantly mutate, so that the speed of mutation exceeds the human immunity, and the fastest transmission can be obtained.
Only in the mutation can the virus gain more and more power of transmission. Similarly, the truth can only be changed if the “change of information” becomes a rumor.
So, a rumor is essentially a virus, and the continuous processing of information during transmission is equivalent to the mutation of the virus. Only the mutation that “believes others more” is beneficial to the “truth-rumor” propagation.
Information is infinite, and human attention is limited. All information is competing for limited attention.
Rumors are born to convince others, and the truth is the truth. It doesn’t care if you believe or not.
Rumors are always “just happened”, “top secret insider”, “female tears and silent men”, but the truth is “a bunch of incomprehensible numbers”, “prerequisites”, “ambiguous”, “with a certain probability “Why compete with rumors?” Therefore, in our circle of friends and WeChat group, the proportion of rumors will always exceed the truth.
This “mutation” feature of rumors makes the truth never the opponent of rumors . So many people think that if the rumor cannot be solved, then the person who solved the rumor will not solve the problem from the source?
Yes, the core to stop the spread of the virus is to find and isolate the people who carry the virus. Naturally, most people support this view: By blocking the people who spread the rumors, they can stop the spread of the rumors.
Unfortunately, it can’t.
3, “Super Communicator” of rumors
The definition of rumors tells us that rumors are just unsubstantiated rumors, not necessarily false.
Because things are changing, there is a process of human cognition. Whether a rumor is the truth or a rumor often takes a long time to know. Just like the example at the beginning, most of the “rumors” are “mutated” from the truth, and this truth is valuable first-hand information, so the core message of many rumors is “far ahead of prediction.”
More worth itThe thought is that since rumors are something that everyone is more willing to believe, then why are you willing to believe it? Because of disappointment, the rumor was public opinion “a protest in disappointment.”
During the mutation of the virus (spread) , there is usually a role of “super spreader” because the virus in this person’s body A mutation of “spreading power” has occurred.
In the variation process of “truth-rumor”, there is also a “super communicator”, who is the person who locks up the rumor-maker.
The most contagious rumor is “conspiracy theory”, and “locking people up” is the most common conspiracy. Therefore, this behavior is like a “mutation”. A rumor of super communication was born.
It’s as if, in the battle against viruses, it is right to isolate people with the virus, but it is foolish to say “nothing is okay” to the people around you, and think that “close inside and loose outside”.
In my opinion, the only chance of winning against rumors is one thing: Improving people’s immunity.
4, fully exposed to various rumors
In the war against viruses, what human beings can really rely on is their own immunity. How did immunity come about? It was constantly exposed to rumors before … No, it was trained by a small range of viruses. .
In essence, this is a war between mutations in the virus and escalation of immunity.
Although it is difficult for us to make truth more “believable” than rumors, we can raise the threshold for people to “believe one thing.”
A lot of research on rumors proves one point: “The more information a person has, the more meticulous his thinking becomes, and the less likely he is to be led to believe that his innermost impulse is often unknown. “(Allport & Lepkin, 1945)
What is more important than quantity is rumors representing different positions, otherwise no amount of information will only cause “information cocoons”.
So the best way is to let people have the right to knowIn the competition of information from different positions, because rumors have various “variants”, when a person finds that all the surrounding information is contradictory, he naturally dismisses all the information.
Furthermore, in the transmission of truth, “super communicators” are also produced-those who can explain the truth in the most popular and direct form.
The best way to stop the spread of rumors is not to “solve” those who spread the rumors, but to let the “rumors” of all levels be fully spread and compared. Level rumors.
5, Legal Notices
Finally, I have to remind everyone that the above is just my point of view, and this point of view is not in line with the current law.
Although I believe that all rumors spread together is the fundamental way to resolve rumors, it is still illegal for China to forward rumors that you cannot confirm. For example, I wrote 4,000 words in this article, and later deleted all the examples. The remaining 2,000 words are pure. Although it has become dry, it is much safer after all.
So you can improve your ability to discern rumors. The government ca n’t help you. The media itself ca n’t protect them. I can only point to this point. You can only count on yourself and let yourself be fully exposed to rumors and increase your immunity to rumors. Force, keep calling for “the government should manage it”.
The result of saying no to the rumor is to pass the truth.
First published on the WeChat public account of “People and God Together (ID: tongyipaocha)”, an original article every week, subvert your views on the workplace.