Modern society needs timely and efficient dissemination of information and law-abiding behavior from people

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "rumor" is defined as "talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernable source", or "a statement without known authority for its truth".

That definition aptly sums up the characteristics of rumor: everybody is talking about it without anybody knowing whether it is true.

In their 1947 study, Psychology of Rumor, US psychologists Gordon Allport and Joseph Postman traced the spread of rumors and found that details of information are often distorted or lost, leaving only core information that meets people's preconceived ideas. In simpler words, when the public is interested in an incident but cannot get reliable information on time, rumor in accordance with their imagination appears and is spread.

Rumor has accompanied human society longer than you can imagine. In China, 2,000 years ago, there was already a systemic strategy of targeting rival public figures with rumors; on the other end of the Eurasian land mass, Roman emperors were so tortured by rumors that they sent special inspectors to detect their origin and control public opinion.

The coming of the information age has given rumors more efficient channels to circulate.

A simple click of the mouse can forward an unconfirmed message to thousands, who can share it with many more. Moreover, people participating in such kinds of rumors tend to accept them, instead of giving them a rational second thought.

With more recipients, both real and potential, the influence of rumors has also increased. A recent notorious and typical example concerned a nuclear leak into the sea after an earthquake hit Japan and destroyed a nuclear plant in March 2011. This rumor resulted in Chinese shoppers rushing to supermarkets to purchase salt on the basis that this would protect their health from any fallout.

The salt rumor crisis is only one of the incidents that show what threat rumors pose to social order, especially in modern society with advanced telecommunication technology. That is why it is nicknamed "flames on the tongue": in certain conditions, rumors can have consequences almost beyond imagination.

Thus it is the wish, as well as duty, of the authorities to prevent rumors from emerging and spreading. However, in dealing with rumors, the authorities should be extremely careful and rational.

Rumors are more than misinformation they often contain grains of truth that play to preconceived notions.

In certain circumstances, people hope public affairs could be more in accordance with their interests, so they distort information into rumor toward that direction. In this case, the government should recognize the interest of the people behind the rumors, and promptly correct misconceptions, if any, instead of simply issuing a ban on rumors.

A common conclusion of researchers is that the spread of rumors is often due to the absence of reliable information from the government. In his case study of rumors in the US after the Pearl Harbor attack, Allport found the main cause of the rumor was that the people did not trust the government's report on losses.

Therefore, the most effective way of preventing rumor lies in promoting government transparency and letting more people know the truth, which further requires the government to publish information and ensure its public availability in case of public incidents.

The battle against rumor needs cooperation from the public, too, who are expected to develop a deeper sense of responsibility in using and sharing mass media resources. Living in a society of mass information, everybody can become a victim as well as a participator in transmitting rumors; it is of key importance for the ordinary person to be more rational and confirm his or her received information before forwarding it to more people.

Professional media also should play a bigger role in society, and be responsible for digging out the truth and giving it to a wider audience. Time is of the essence in racing against rumors.

Of course, the ultimate solution to rumors lies in constructing rule of law in society, in which every citizen enjoys freedom of speech without violating the rights and freedom of others. With the rule of law, rumors might still emerge, but they will face legal penalties if they harm other people's rights or even social order.

In both China and abroad, examples of rumormongers being stopped, or even punished by law, have proved the old saying that rumor has shorter legs, especially in a modern society with the rule of law.

The Chinese version of this piece appeared in Study Times.

(China Daily 10/16/2013 page8)