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Retelling urban legends.

Jean E Fox Tree¹, Mary Susan Weldon

¹Psychology Department, Social Sciences II, University of California, Santa Cruz, 95064, USA. foxtree@cats.ucsc.edu

The American Journal of Psychology

|September 26, 2007

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People are more likely to retell familiar urban legends, even if widely known. Story repetition boosts credibility, importance, and scariness, increasing retelling frequency.

Area of Science:

Psychology
Social Psychology
Communication Studies

Background:

Urban legends are frequently retold, yet the specific factors driving their transmission are not fully understood.
Previous research suggests truthfulness and scariness influence story retelling.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the factors that influence the retelling of urban legends.
To examine the impact of story familiarity, repetition, context, and details on narrative transmission.

Main Methods:

Participants were exposed to various urban legends with differing levels of familiarity, context, and detail.
Retelling frequency, perceived credibility, importance, and scariness were measured.
The influence of story repetition on these factors was also assessed.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

People retold truthful, scary, and notably, well-known urban legends.
Story repetition increased perceived credibility, importance, scariness, and the likelihood of retelling.
Contextualization and added details did not generally increase retelling likelihood, except for details in newly heard stories.
Added details and context in the source material led to their inclusion in retellings, with consistent confabulation levels.

Conclusions:

Familiarity is a significant driver for urban legend retelling, challenging prior assumptions.
Repetition acts as a crucial mechanism enhancing a story's perceived validity and emotional impact, thereby promoting its spread.
While details can aid initial retelling of new stories, the core drivers appear to be familiarity and the reinforcing effects of repetition.