Urban legend

:Urban Legend is also the name of a 1998 movie.

Propagation and belief

Many urban legends are about horrific crimes, contaminated foods or other situations that might affect a lot of people if they were true. If one hears such a story, and believes it, a person might feel compelled to warn friends and family.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A person might also pass on non-cautionary information simply because it is funny or interesting. Many urban legends are basically extended jokes, told as if they were true events. In some cases they may have originated as pure jokes that some teller personalized to add point and force to the story.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

People apparently take urban legends to be true instead of recognizing them as tall tales or unsubstantiated rumors because of the way the story is passed on. For example, if a friend tells you an urban legend, most likely she will say it happened to a friend of somebody she knows, giving it a spurious credibility. Since people, unconsciously or otherwise, often exaggerate, conflate or "clean up" stories when passing them on, urban legends can alter over time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See meme and memetics for theories on the rules of transmission for this kind of information.

Related Topics:
Meme - Memetics

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many Internet users find un-necessary emails generated by the propagation of urban legends an annoyance, and at the same time consider the sender to be foolish, having been suckered by the story.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~