Differences between the public and private communication of rumors. A pilot survey in Belgium

Liu et al. (2010) and Gelders et al. (2007) called for evidence-based research on differences between public and private sector communication. This article offers such data by focusing on an increasingly important domain of public relations (i.e., corporate communication about rumors vis-à-vis internal and external stakeholders).Our results show government communicators are more frequently confronted with harmful rumors than business communicators but a similar number of respondents from each group have experienced the listed effects and these respondents rate the effects as equally severe. However, fewer public sector communicators have applied most of the proposed strategies, and those who did found them to be in most cases less effective than private sector respondents. In other words, government communicators hear more rumors, experience equally often the negative effects and find them equally severe as business communicators, but they often do not react to them and if they do, they do not find the strategies to be very effective.This study suggests that typical features of public sector organizations, such as the capricious political climate and the influence of party politics, might offer an explanation for these findings.     

Validity judgments of rumors heard multiple times: the shape of the truth effect

Research on the illusory truth effect has found that repeated presentation of uncertain statements increases validity judgments of those statements. Three experiments explored the shape of the repetition–validity–judgment relationship over multiple repetitions, the mediating role of processing fluency, and the moderating role of dispositional skepticism. Participants read narratives in which different rumors were repeated 0–6 or 0–9 times; validity estimates, processing fluency, and dispositional skepticism were also measured. Validity judgments were logarithmically related to repetitions; this effect was mediated by processing fluency, and moderated slightly by skepticism. Results explore the boundaries of the processing fluency contrast account of the illusory truth effect, suggest a minor role for skepticism, and inform research on belief in rumor (uncertain statements in circulation).     

Effective strategies for responding to rumors about risks: The case of radiation-contaminated food in South Korea

This experimental study explores how governments should respond to rumors about national-level risk issues. Informed by research in rumor psychology and risk/crisis communication, it investigates whether type of rumor and rumor response strategy have main and interaction effects on reducing rumor beliefs and intention to disseminate rumor. The two featured rumor types are the bogie rumor, which highlights feared outcomes, and the wedge rumor, which aims to reinforce differences between rival groups. Derived from Situational Crisis Communication Theory, the three response strategies examined are refuting the rumor, denying it, and attacking its source. Data were drawn from part of a large-scale online experiment, and the sample of the analysis was 942 South Korean adults. The experiment had a between-subjects design of 2 rumor type (wedge vs. bogie) x 3 government response strategies (refutation, denial, attack the attacker). Results show that all three rumor response strategies significantly reduced rumor beliefs, but only the refutation strategy significantly reduced intention to disseminate the rumor. Rumor type (bogie) and response strategies (refutation) had main, but not interaction, effects on reduction of intention to disseminate the rumor.     

SARS事件中的流言与控制

紧急事件中的流言与谣言 ,不仅对个人身心有害 ,对社会秩序的稳定甚至经济的发展也可能产生极大的消极作用。有效地控制流言的传播及其消极影响 ,是社会管理的重要内容。这不仅需要改革政府的社会管理体制 ,增加公共信息的透明度及权威性 ,同时也要研究紧急事件中社会成员的社会心理变化 ,研究流言的传播规律及控制手段 ,减少流言滋生的社会条件 ,提高社会成员的心理素质及抗干扰的能力。     

“谣言”与转变:地方政府环境治理的风险平衡逻辑——基于广西速生桉种植政策的分析

在政府的积极推动下,广西的速生桉及其相关产业迅猛发展,成为区内第九个千亿元产业,但速生桉有毒的"谣言"也随之日渐喧嚣。在科学研究表明速生桉无毒的前提下,广西部分地方政府转而限制和禁止种植速生桉。这一政策体现了平衡环境破坏、社会生态破坏和经济发展停滞风险的行政逻辑,其基本特征是在认同泛风险的基础上平衡各种风险分配,而不是指向化解风险。这种风险平衡行政仍出于"不出事"的考量,也导致了诸多"意外后果",但在环境治理方面具有比传统的"不出事"逻辑更为积极的意义。     

Rumor behaviors as collective problem-solving: The moderating roles of regulatory focus

Approaching rumors as a form of collective problem-solving, this study investigated how regulatory focus (i.e., prevention vs. promotion) interacts with rumor valence to affect rumor behaviors via community motives using an experiment with 534 Korean citizens. The analysis showed that positive rumors (vs. negative) elicit stronger information seeking intentions among low promotion-focus individuals. Also, when exposed to negative rumors (vs. positive), both high prevention- and promotion-focus individuals showed stronger community motives, increasing both their rumor transmitting and information seeking intentions.