In the modern time, due to sharply lower threshold for releasing information and faster speed for publishing propagation (in short, more people can release more information more quickly), rumors whose validity can not be judged flood on the internet. One of the characteristics of the virtual time is that each individual can become a part of the media, and when the ordinary citizens publish gossips they often do not want to or do not think it necessary to verify their authenticity.
One of the reasons why many rumors can spread so fast, and so far is that many domestic rumors are belonging to "altruistic type rumors spread", that is, the ordinary spread the rumor out of the purpose of helping others. One example is the rumor about the crisis of salt in the spring of 2011. Many people urged their relatives to buy salt because they were told that to supplement iodine salt and kelp could help to anti radiation. Apart from very minority who wanted to raise the salt price, most people spread the rumor not out of the vicious purpose, instead they might think that they did so in order to help their relativesto help them to keep healthy and escape a disaster, but the result of this kind hope was that almost all people believed an unconfirmed rumor.
The psychology of spreading rumor is clearer when the themes of rumor are closely related human health, food security, cell phone and radiation etc. First of all, the rumor often appears in the form that I am the only one who is accessible to the truth", and in the name of helping you, I will tell you a truth for example, what can be eaten or used and what can not be eaten or used. Failure to follow my advice may bring you personal disasters. Rumors such as "stool is health killer", "transgenic food cannot be eaten", and "milk is conducive to sleep" and so on all belong to this type. This type of rumors actually builds up a taboo system, letting people to comply with these warnings. The feature of the taboo is "despite you do not know why it is so, but youd better comply with it because nobody knows what will happen if you do not believe this.
Strangely, it was "out of kindness", the rumor can spread in the crowd for a prolonged period. Because many people believe that they are altruistic, so when spreading rumors, they not only do not feel guilty or psychological burdens, instead they think they are helping others and eventually lead to rampant rumors. Altruistic communicators are often indifferent to the truth, because they are more likely to insist what they have been doing is the right thing.