Block Adam Block Essay #3: Rumor ENG-1100 College Writing Professor Lago ROUGH DRAFT Knapps Categorizations

of Rumors In Robert Knapps Psychology of Rumor, he believes that there are three different categories of rumors. Knapp believes that there is the Pipe dream or wish rumor, the Bogie Rumor, and the Wedge-driving Aggression Rumor. There are many rumors, successful and unsuccessful, that I have heard in my lifetime that fit the

criteria of these categories. What is most important in making a successful rumor is that it must be simple. As Knapp stated, No successful rumor may exceed a length or complexity greater than the memory span of the group through which it passes (Knapp 361). In other words, the simpler the rumor is, the easier it is to remember, and the more likely it is to spread exponentially.

One of the most popular rumors that is brought up in the United States to this very date (sadly) is that president Barrack Obama was not a natural born in the United States of America. What made this rumor relatively successful (in a damaging way) is that it is easy to believe because of his name and that it is easy to remember. However, this rumor falls under Knapps category of Wedge driving Aggression Rumor because it is a rumor made for the purpose of destroying a group or person, the group being the Democratic Party. The idea behind the origin of the rumor to destroy the president is that under Article II of the U.S Constitution, In order to be president, a person must be a natural-born citizen of the United States. If it could have been some how proved that

Block Obama was not a natural born citizen, then Obama could not have been president of the United States.

The next category of rumor is the Bogie Rumor. The Bogie Rumor is driven by fear and anxiety. I believe our class experiment of the Wayne Dining Hall putting laxatives in our food is the perfect example of this category of rumor. This rumor was created by students to scare people from eating in the Wayne Dining Hall. What makes this a Bogie Rumor is that it is driven by pessimistic qualities and its supposed to scare people. Of course it is not true that they put laxatives in our food, but what is true is that the food is not very good. This is once again a successful rumor because it is easy to remember and easy for the ignorant to believe.