In our July 15th meeting we discussed information diffusion. This is a fragmented field--covered by sociologists, folklorists, journalists, and epidemiologists, among others--so it was hard to follow our "1 recommended paper" rule from last time. In the end we read this paper on simulating rumors, which attempts to answer the question: why, through the 70s and 80s, did every third-grader in the U.S. hear that Bubble Yum is made from spider's eggs? An interesting conclusion of the article is that skeptics can inadvertently help spread rumors.
Posted by Martin Wattenberg at July 21, 2003 09:10 AM