Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Getting to the Root of Rumors

NPR

This was an amazing show...what people will believe! And worse; if you debunk the rumor, that will convince even more people that it was true...when it never was!

Personal note: I never get 'forwarded' email any more. I was always sending it back with corrections and after awhile most forwarders just gave up on me. Try it!

And here's a new site (for me) for the truth about political rumors...
http://www.politifact.com/

2 comments:

  1. I heard the same report on NPR yesterday. It was fascinating to think that given a choice of a perfect stranger forwarding a chain email and a website that researches these rumors, that people would rather believe a forwarded email. I had never seen politifact.com either. I love the "pants on fire" rating. I will try answering the forwarded emails with some facts and see if it works for me.

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  2. By responding with facts, you really take the fun out of the forwards for them; but not for you! And for even more fun for you...send your correction to EVERYONE on the original mailing.

    You'll soon be dropped from their lists.

    ReplyDelete