Xie Hui： Why do rumors exist？

In recent years, from the "Internet promoter" to the judicial interpretation of the crime of libel in the two high courts, the word "rumor" has once again attracted great attention from society and people after the legend of "the end of the world in 2012". The so-called rumor is explained by Modern Chinese Dictionary as follows: news without factual basis; Webster’s English Dictionary holds that rumor is a kind of gossip, hearsay or public opinion that lacks real basis or is unconfirmed, and it is difficult for the public to distinguish truth from falsehood for a while.
　　In fact, rumors are produced in the dissemination of information, which is closely related to human society, but the social response caused by them is different. In China, there have been proverbs related to rumors since ancient times, such as "three men make a tiger", "out of nothing", "unfounded" and "rumors stop with wise men". As early as the Qin Dynasty, the first emperor Ying Zheng was greatly disturbed by the statement that "those who died in Qin Dynasty were also Hu Ye", so he explored the Xiongnu in the north and built the Great Wall; In the west, the emperor of ancient Rome was tortured by rumors so much that he had to appoint a public rumor monitor to go to the crowd every day to find rumors from gossip and grasp public sentiment. It can be said that "rumors are the oldest mass media in the world". For thousands of years, there have been countless rumors in history. Before the appearance of words, rumors appeared in the form of word of mouth; With the development of society and science and technology, the means of information dissemination are becoming more and more abundant. The powerful network media can reduce the cost of communication, and at the same time, the public can be mobilized quickly and uniformly, which makes the information diffusion in the network era far exceed the traditional word of mouth. Rumors not only didn’t disappear, but became rampant with the help of the internet, and gradually became the interference and hidden danger of people’s normal life. After we experienced the SARS incident, the rice panic and the salt shortage, we really learned the power of rumors. So why do rumors exist? Allport, a social psychologist, analyzed the wartime rumors in the "Pearl Harbor Incident" in the United States in 1942,This paper not only points out the two conditions for the formation of rumors-the importance of events and the fuzziness of information, but also puts forward three basic mechanisms in the process of rumor dissemination, namely, deletion, flattening and assimilation. When people want to understand and simplify many complicated events that come one after another and develop rapidly, they have a strong psychological motivation to ask them to simplify relevant information and spread it to people who also care about it quickly. In the process of information being continuously processed, the facts are constantly distorted or even reversed, and finally there is only one core that everyone can understand, and this core information is often consistent with the ideas or prejudices that the crowd has long held.
　　Therefore, rumors in society exist spontaneously and independently as a force of social information regulation mechanism. In any region, when the public is interested in an event or problem but can’t be confirmed in time, rumors spread like wildfire. With the modernization of information technology, the multi-channel characteristics of the network have opened the door for the spread of rumors. When people can’t get information from the mainstream media or authoritative departments, rumors that used to rely mainly on interpersonal communication are spread through the internet with the help of fast modern communication technology, just like opening a Pandora’s Box. When people become a member of the communication group, they are often only willing to accept simple and clear ideas, while the rational power is thrown aside.
　　Although rumors exist for a long time and stubbornly in every period and country, they are like viruses in the social body, but they are extremely destructive to a normal social order. History and facts have proved that rumors have great energy in social mobilization. Some people say that rumors are enemies of state power and adversaries of order, so rumors are also called "flames on the tip of the tongue". At least from the perspective of political rationality, rumors are suspected of causing subversion and anarchy. As early as 1751, in the Encyclopedia, the relationship between rumors and government supervision was clear. Therefore, it is a public event that every government must face to take corresponding measures to curb the generation and spread of rumors to the maximum extent.
　　The government needs to treat rumors rationally. It can be said that rumors are the expression of social people’s perception of society, which appears in the form of information, but when people transmit information, they are more showing an emotion or attitude, or a subconscious release. Influenced by this subconscious, the news components of rumors are constantly being added, deleted or tampered with. It is not only caused by the forgetfulness of memory and the loss of information, but also closely related to the interest differences among the people. Therefore, the government should recognize the interest differences among the people caused by social injustice from behind the rumors, and do corresponding and necessary work in the public sphere for the purpose of maintaining social justice.
　　The government needs to improve the openness and transparency of information. The reason why rumors spread everywhere is largely due to the absence of the government and authoritative voices. The blockage of information disclosure channels delays the opportunity for the government to take timely measures, and also delays the opportunity for public psychological adjustment. When the government provides correct information channels, those rumors in society will be self-defeating. This not only requires the government to be highly sensitive and forward-looking, so that it can publish information in the first time and guide public opinion in a positive way in time; Moreover, we should further vigorously promote the openness of government affairs and let the public know the truth. For example, the spread of rumors in the "Pearl Harbor Incident" in 1942 reflected the American people’s distrust of the official "wartime loss report". Therefore, while stopping rumors and issuing relevant laws, what a responsible government needs to do most is to find rumors at the first time, inform the public of all the information it has at once, and ensure that these information reaches every public.
　　The public needs to cultivate their ability to enjoy mass communication resources correctly. In the current society of increasing information flow and freedom of expression, people can easily become "receivers" of rumors and comments, and then become "disseminators" of rumors. Therefore, it is particularly urgent to cultivate the public’s ability to acquire, analyze, identify and evaluate information. Every individual in society should get rid of the blind obedience mentality of "not good at reasoning, but eager to take action" and make constructive use of media resources to conduct positive social energy. The government should exert the necessary strength to enable people to make full use of media resources to improve themselves and participate in social progress; At the same time, guide the people to get rid of false information and give full play to the role of mainstream media.
　　Rumors stop at the rule of law. In a sound society ruled by law, citizens undoubtedly have freedom of expression and speech, but no matter what kind of freedom, there are inevitable and definite boundaries. When the creation and spread of rumors interfere with people’s normal life and even endanger social order, this is no longer a simple "nonsense" or "hearsay", but a legal issue. Facts have proved that emotional rumors are no match for rational laws. From the "AIDS girl" incident to the "Qin Huohuo", one rumor after another ends in the case of the rule of law, which has shown and is still showing that no right is a "fig leaf" for rumors.