Urban Legends

While in college, I heard a tale that created absolute joy in my heart.

A student was taking a final exam, and the proctor called "Time". Most of the students put down their pens, got up, and walked down the stairs to turn in their blue books. However, one student kept writing. The proctor announced to that student to stop immediately, which he did not do. Then, after a few minutes, the student ran up to the proctor who was stacking the pile of submissions on the desk. The proctor said there was no way that he would accept the late submission. The student asked, "Do you know who I am?" and when the proctor said, "No", he shoved the book into the middle of the pile, making it undetectable.

I believed the story, and told several friends, who were equally delighted. It was a David over Goliath tale, translated into something we college students could relate to. I was crushed when I learned years later that it was an urban myth.

I find it interesting that this myth, along with countless others you can find on snopes.com, were disseminated long before the public use of the Internet - as was the fact that it was a myth.

I also find it interesting that as the myth was told, it was customized to make it seem more real - the use of blue books for the exam, the auditorium structure of classroom, which reflected the lecture halls of my college. It all made it seem more real, more plausible – the "telephone" game in action.

In the article "How Urban Legends Work", posted on http://people.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend5.htm (9/10/2009), it mentions that one unique feature of using email to disseminate the rumor is that the story is not reinterpreted. So, it would seem, that the switch to instant, non-oral communication has removed this aspect of customization and reinterpretation from the process – no longer story-telling, but archiving.

A quick perusal of David Emory's Urban Legends blog (http://urbanlegends.about.com/, 9/11/2009) warns of a false amber alert and states that the latest celebrity death rumor is for Matt Damon. I'm old enough to remember the legend of Paul McCartney having died, "he blew his mind out in a car", and the fan panic that ensued. So, urban legends can have a darker side as well, causing undue work and stress, as in the Amber alert, computer and human virus warnings, and other false negative rumors.

So, I am really interested in learning the psychology behind these myths. I mentioned in the Forum that I thought that these could be some manifestations of people's fears.

• If you look at FactCheck.org (9/11/2009), the leading stories are on rumors around the financial crisis, healthcare reform, and President Obama. These are areas of conversation and concern by many… so could it be that some use urban legends as a channel for their emotions? 
• The Psychology Today article on "What Fuels Urban Legends" (http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200203/what-fuels-urban-legends, 9/9/2009) clearly points to emotion as being a key factor. 
• Richard Dawkin's concept of a meme, as first presented in "The Selfish Gene" (1976/2006), is a theory of how cultural phenomena are spread in populations.

So, from the works read this week, I feel I have a good feel for how rumors are spread and perpetuated, but I still long to know more about the "why" of urban legends – Fame? Fear? Both? Something else?