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The term ‘rumor’ is often used interchangeably with ‘gossip’ and ‘urban legend’ by both laypersons and scholars. In this article we attempt to clarify the construct of rumor by proposing a definition that delineates the situational and motivational contexts from which rumors arise (ambiguous, threatening or potentially threatening situations), the functions that rumors perform (sense-making and threat management), and the contents of rumor statements (unverified and instrumentally relevant information statements in circulation). To further clarify the rumor construct we also investigate the contexts, functions and contents of gossip and urban legends, juxtapose these with rumor, and analyze their similarities and differences.

Rumors are widely prevalent in everyday life. They fuel intergroup conflict during war and riots, play havoc with the reputations of companies and products, and cause price swings in the stock markets (DiFonzo and Bordia 1997DiFonzo, Bordia, and Rosnow 1994). In view of their importance in everyday social interaction, the dearth of attention paid to rumors by social scientists is surprising (see Rosnow 1991Rosnow , 2001. This situation is due in part to the difficulties inherent in rumor fieldwork: rumors are fleeting, temporal phenomena that leave no traces. With the advent of widespread computer-mediated communication (CMC), however, the situation has changed dramatically (Bordia 1996;Bordia and Rosnow 1998). In the study reported here, we analyzed rumor interaction episodes on the Internet. We found evidence supporting previous findings based on self-report measures as well as some new evidence consistent with predictions made by classic explanations of why rumors spread. The Social Psychology of RumorRumor has been defined as "an unverified proposition for belief that bears topical relevance for persons actively involved in its dissemination" (Rosnow and Kimmel 2000:122). Thus rumors purportedly are factual but lack authenticity. Usually they concern current or topical issues of interest to people. Rumors can be differentiated from news in that the latter are verified, while the former are unsubstantiated. Rumors share this element of nonsubstantiation with gossip, but differ in importance and relevance: rumors are largely about issues of major significance for a group, while gossip is mostly idle talk of limited significance.Rumors arise in situations that are personally relevant but ambiguous or cognitively unclear, and when credible explanations are not available from traditional sources

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