Did you hear that there are plastic compounds in Dairy Queen’s soft serve ice cream? Have you heard that you can catch AIDS from sharing a bus seat with the wrong person? Rumors: where do they come from? Who starts them and why do they spread so quickly? Why do people believe them? How do we prevent them and protect ourselves from them? Social scientists have researched all of these questions and found many interesting results. Daniel Goleman, author of “Anatomy Of A Rumor” explains that rumors are sometimes started by researchers in order to study them. Researchers study rumors in hopes of finding better ways to prevent harmful rumors. Anxieties and fear are two main reasons why people believe and spread rumors. People grasp…show more content… It is unfortunate that competing companies will sometimes take any edge they can get to become the more successful company. Inflating and encouraging rumors can help companies take an economic advantage over those being attacked. Procter & Gamble is not the only company that has been attacked by viscous rumors. Salmans states that McDonald’s has been accused of putting worms in their hamburgers. Goleman also discusses the worm rumor and adds that the rumor was “accompanied by the information that worms are nutritious and considered a delicacy in some cultures.” Researchers added this information to see if it would kill the rumor. Rumors can sometimes be diminished quickly if the information is presented in a particular way, as this example…show more content… I’m sure everyone has heard this one before. It is about restaurants using dogs in the dishes they serve to customers. The dogs that are being served are the missing dogs from the local town people. It was a very successful rumor because in China, people do eat dogs. This example shows that people tend to latch on and spread rumors that they have knowledge about and believe. Goleman also explains that rumors like this can spread to other cultures that people sometimes hold prejudices against. Recently there have been rumors of “Vietnamese immigrants in Texas and elsewhere, about Mexicans in Southern California and about Native Americans in Wisconsin” doing the same