In a recently published Issues in Science and Technology article, @uwcip co-founders Emma Spiro and @katestarbird explore how decades-old research about how and why people share rumors is even more relevant today in a world with social media.
Spiro and Starbird write: "The study of rumors, which surged around World War II, is still very relevant."
In the article, Spiro and Starbird revisit the 1954 “Seattle windshield pitting epidemic,” an event where residents in WA reported finding unexplained pits, holes and other damage in their car windshields, leading to wide speculation about the cause. It’s “a textbook example of how rumors propagate: a sort of contagion, spread through social networks, shifting how people perceive patterns and interpret anomalies,” they write.
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