The roles of personal relevance, anxiety, and source medium in understanding belief and transmission of rumors in the News.

Abstract

This thesis extends social-psychological theories of rumor belief and transmission to the study of mass communication. In particular, this study uses a mixed-design experiment with a sample of 90 college students to 1) compare the effects of television and newspaper coverage on believability and intended transmission of two prominent rumors; and 2) assess the role of personal relevance (high vs. low) in determining rumor effects. In addition, four OLS regression models explored the impact of anxiety, personal relevance, and uncertainty on rumor belief and transmission. Results provide some support for the hypothesis that rumors reported on television are more believable and are more likely to be transmitted than rumors reported in newspapers. Evidence also points to personal relevance as an important factor as the highly relevant rumor created more anxiety and intention to transmit than did the low-relevance rumor. Additionally, personal relevance was found to be the only significant predictor of intended rumor transmission. Perhaps most importantly, findings here indicate that people are willing to transmit rumors that they do not believe. Results and implications are discussed in the context of rumors reported in the news.