How can I learn about how to best disseminate word-of-mouth information? Lets’s say that I wanted to start a new urban legend of my own creation, or that I wanted to protect society against a predatory criminal by warning his potential victims of his intents, or that I just wanted free advertising for my new hamburger restaurant. Is there a field of social psychology which deals with this process, and if so, what is it called? I’m familiar with the concept of viral marketing; has anybody written a good definitive text on the subject? I can handle basic regression and factor analyses, so it doesn’t have to be written at a See-Spot-Run level. To whom should I look first for information on this subject?
A letter to ‘Dear Abby’ is one effective way to start/spread an urban legend.
(I especially liked the letter which explained how, when a driver was preoccupied with changing a CD, everyone in the car died.)
Cite.