# Spreading Rumors Effectively
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spreading-rumors-effectively/431148
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 24, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spreading-rumors-effectively/431148 "2007-12-24T19:25:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spreading-rumors-effectively/431148/1 "2007-12-24T19:25:46Z")
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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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?
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### Author:  [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2007, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spreading-rumors-effectively/431148/2 "2007-12-25T04:30:16Z")
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](http://www.all-lies.com/faqs/faq-legends.shtml).