Sociological Experiment 1: I'm Going To Invent An Urban Legend

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have decided to try a new experiment. I’m going to invent a ridiculous, preposterous and demonstrably false bit of pseudoscience and attempt to disseminate it in the form of an obviously silly urban legend.

HYPOTHESIS: I believe that no matter how utterly stupid I make my urban legend, enough people will believe it that it will be all over the Internet within a year and will be a published “Fact” within three.

This has happened before. It is now an oft-repeated urban legend that the average person “eats” ten, or fifteen, spiders per year/their lifetime in their sleep (the number and time period varies.) This is not true, and in fact it is a deliberately manufactured urban legend, created by Lisa Holst in 1993 to demonstrate the propensity of urba legends to spread.

My urban legend - actually, it’s more pseudoscience - has to do with “rods.” A recent SDMB thread asked about “rods,” which are supposedly magical creatures that can only be seen flying around on film. They’re just dust, insects flying by, and lens flare, but the existence of super-fast creatures possibly from outer space has become big time pseudoscience folklore. Web sites about “rods”:
http://www.roswellrods.com/ab3.html

My urban legend will be that I have found a new way to “see” rods.

URBAN LEGEND: No longer do you have to use a camera to see rods; no, you can use MIRRORS. The key to seeing “rods” with mirrors is you need two mirrors. If you prop a mirror up and then hold another mirror facing it, and you get that endless-tunnel effect, you can, if you look hard enough, see the “rods” flying about in the deep iterations of the reflection. I will state that I have seen, around the sixth or seventh iteration, in the mirror facing me, “rods” flying about behind me. Of course, it helps if you have REALLY good mirrors, since cheap mirrors lose the quality of the image faster the further “Back” you look. Try holding two mirrors apart and using binoculars to “see” deep into the reflection! /URBAN LEGEND

I’m going to tell this story, in various forms, in a few places, and see what happens. Anyone want to tell it themselves?

Of course, this thread is fairly good evidence it’s all bunk. But I honestly don’t think that will ever matter.

So let’s watch and see if this one spreads. I will start posting a few seed messages today. December 12, 2002.

2

Holy crap! I see 'em! I see the rods! I used binoculars, and then a microscope into the mirror! I see them!!

Tripler
And strangely I hear, “Some guys have all the luck, some guys have all the pain . . .” in the background!

3

Damn, RickJay, I wanted to start an Urban Legend, and you beat me to it.

Well, I guess I’ll keep my eyes peeled for some “rod” messages heading to my inbox within the next year.

4

I’ve always wondered how this sort of experiment would turn out, but I could never think of a good fake urban legend.

5

Cool. If you need some help, you know, follow up posting supporting your thesis, let me know. My e-mail address is in my personal stuff.

6

I assume that I have your permission to spread this around to everyone I know, slightly modified, of course. :slight_smile:

7

I’m not sure your UL will spread. There’s no “eek” factor, no “gross” factor, no “conspiracy” factor, no “fear” factor etc…in it which could lead people to repeat and spread it, IMO.

By the way, such an experiment has already be conducted scientifically at least once in France, and probably many other times in various countries, so I suppose there should be some studies on this topic out there…

8

Yeah, but it has the element of simplicity.

Who wants to bother with developing film to see “rods” or “globes”, as I’ve seen it called? I mean, come on, that costs money! :smiley:

9

I don’t think it’s fair if you, or other erstwhile debunkers, try to spread it. You’re basically eliminating the counter-force that hampers most ULs. I also agree with clairobscur that it won’t spread well - nobody except UL circle people knows what the heck rods are.

10

A friend of mine decided to spread a rumor around my hometown that Ewan McGregor did the voice of Scrooge McDuck, under a pseudonym. It was then retold to him as fact at many a party.

Why he decided on that particular falsehood is beyond me, but I have to admit that I found it very amusing.

11

This is fighting ignorance?

12

No. It’s flying ignorance!

13

Oooh, idea-we should see if we can’t make a whole slew of them.

14

I think your UL might be a tad too complicated. It also doesn’t really have a meaty hook, in that it isn’t a story, doesn’t involve a celebrity, and builds on an already-existing urban legend.

But, hey, good luck. :).

15

What next? Send out a bunch of spam to see if any of it bounces back?

Why not send a chain letter saying that you’re a dying child who’s last wish is that everyone send his letter to five of their friends?

Sorry for the sarcasm, but what’s the point of this “Sociological Experiment”?

16

Was the spider eating legend really manufactored?

17

You bet it was.

18

I agree that its too complicated. I wasn’t quite sure what you were talking about with the rods.

I think you are going to have to dumb it waaaaaay down.
Besides, who has really good mirrors laying around?

The problem with it is you are giving people a chance to ‘test’ it. You need a UL, like the spider one, that no one can really prove.

19

I can just imagine this conversation:

Spider UL:
Me: Did you know that you eat 12 spiders in your lifetime while sleeping?
Friend: Eeew! gross! (goes off to tell someone else)

Rods UL:
Me: Did you know that you actually don’t need a camera to see rods flying by? instead you can use 2 mirrors hold them against each other and you will see the “rods” flying about in the deep iterations of the reflection.
Friend: What?

Naah… you need either gross or sexual - I think it would be better to invent some story about a childrens toy or some other normal thing and say that if you do “something something” with it, you’ll get an instant orgasm - ofcouse it must be done precisely right to work.

// brian

20

Yes, this is horrible, this idea.

I don’t like being critical (oh, who am I kidding, I love eeeeeet!) but your urban legend requires too much explanation. I’d never heard of rods before and I’m betting not many people I know have either. Good urban legends don’t need explaining, that’s why they’re so popular!

:smiley: