Rumor

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For other uses, see Rumor (disambiguation).

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A rumor (U.S.) or rumour (elsewhere, see spelling differences) is a piece of purportedly true information that circulates without substantiating evidence. The information content of rumors can range from simple gossip to advanced propaganda techniques.

Classically, rumors spread from person to person by word of mouth, as in gossip. Cheap postage rates and then telephone services fomented the pace and range of the swirling of rumors. With the advent of the Internet many rumors have started to spread via email and more recently through blogging, as also occurs with various hoaxes, and urban legends.

While many rumors begin or continue to spread as a part of natural human communication that occurs when people discuss something they find funny or interesting, some are started in an intentional attempt to disseminate specific information. Viral marketing campaigns often depend on rumors, as do many political endeavors. Some people in very public positions find rumors very troublesome, annoying or embarrassing, when real or imaginary details about the personal lives they would prefer to keep private start to spread among people who are interested in them. Rumors can have a powerful motivational aspect on those who believe in them – among stock traders, for example, hearing a rumor from a trusted source can lead one to believe that one now has inside information. As rumors spread without corraborating evidence, it's not unusual for those who have heard the rumor to look for some on their own – a rumor about a celebrity's sexual preferences, for example, may cause those who hear it to start judging the celebrity's behavior against known stereotypes. Some rumors can be particularly outlandish or bizarre, such as the persistent claims that the singer Elvis Presley still lives or that the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had but a single testicle (there is in fact some evidence for this; see Adolf Hitler's medical health).

Rumors in plays are also a popular means of introducing a play, often called an Induction. In Henry IV, Part 2, one of Shakespeare's histories, rumor is used to twist and complicate the plot, to narrate in a way that does not have to state truth nor fact within the play, but lie and concoct the characters' whereabouts and their actions.

Poets have personified rumor as an abstract, demi-god-like figure, Rumor, since at least Roman times. "She" is the source of endless trouble in Virgil's Aeneid.

In the financial markets rumour is rife with unfounded statements such as the dollar is going to crash or the price of gold will explode or the price of oil will explode. These are usually all based not on scientific information but on speculation and hype that various events will occur and so forth thus approximating to rumour. These type of rumours should not be used to make important financial decisions if uninformed.