Word: difonzo
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Gossip is unavoidable. Wherever you go, rumors flow. Entire careers, in fact, have been dedicated to creating it, spreading it, quashing it and corralling it. In his new book, The Watercooler Effect, Nicholas DiFonzo, a professor of psychology at the Rochester Institute of Technology, examines the gossip that buzzes through every community, explaining why people feel so compelled to devour and perpetuate rumors, and what effect that has on society at large. DiFonzo spoke with TIME's Jeremy Caplan about some of history's worst rumors, the peculiarities of Web gossip, why "no comment" is the wrong answer...
...DiFonzo: Hearing rumors, especially repeatedly, tends to increase our belief in them. In one study, hearing a rumor that "Sophie" had a mental illness tended to reduce participants' liking for her, desire to know her, and likelihood of voting for her in the student-government election. That rumor capitalized on a negative stigma associated with mental illness. Hearing the same rumor repeatedly tends to increase belief in that rumor along a "diminishing-returns" type of curve: One repetition increases belief the most, a second repetition increases belief next most, a third repetition increases it next most, and so on. These...
...while standing in front of the Avalon. Her friend Tiffany J. Woo agrees.“It sucks,” Woo says. “They should just check our IDs at the bar. This just encourages people to get fake ones.”Clubgoer Maren F. Difonzo favors the ban. “I agree with [the restrictions],” she says. “I’m 23. I don’t want little kids playing with me. There isn’t any drama anymore if someone accidentally spills someone else?...
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