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[Typifying rumors in university students' everyday conversation]
1Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan. pei-t@human.tsukuba.ac.jp
Shinrigaku Kenkyu : the Japanese Journal of Psychology
|November 22, 2007
Summary
University students engage in distinct types of rumor talk, categorized by content and conversational function. These include "humor," "anxiety," "daily," and "sensation-seeking" types, influencing information sharing and social dynamics.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Communication Studies
- Linguistics
Context:
- Everyday conversational dynamics among university students.
- The role of rumor dissemination in social interactions.
- Understanding informal information exchange in academic settings.
Purpose:
- To typify rumor talk in university students' everyday conversations.
- To investigate the structure of rumor content and its functions.
- To classify different types of rumor talk based on attributes and functions.
Summary:
- Study 1 identified two rumor types: 'humor' (high humor, low certainty, entertainment function) and 'anxiety' (low humor, high anxiety, information supplement function).
- Study 2 expanded this, identifying 'daily' (high certainty, information supplement) and 'sensation-seeking' (high humor, high anxiety, low certainty) types.
- Rumor talk is characterized by content attributes like humor, anxiety, and certainty, serving functions from entertainment to information supplement.
Impact:
- Provides a framework for understanding informal communication patterns in university populations.
- Highlights the diverse motivations and characteristics of rumor spreading among young adults.
- Offers insights into how social information, both factual and speculative, is managed in peer groups.
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