Conspiracy Theory and Gossip Networks

Strong and Weak Ties: The Spread of Rumor

Merely labeling a claim as a conspiracy theory can delegitimize it. Despite this reputation, conspiracy thinking is becoming a more accepted part of U.S. political culture and is commodified in popular culture. There are psychological and cultural reasons for the spread of unsecured information. As such information spreads, it undergoes processes of leveling, sharpening, and assimilation, which can change its content. Leveling is when people who pass on information leave out the inconsistent details—the details that do not fit in with their knowledge or stereotypes. Unfamiliar place names are lost, for example. Sharpening is when the remaining details are made more vivid, sharper, or concrete. Assimilation is when people emphasize details in areas where they have expertise—details that are relevant to themselves or their audience. Upon retelling, then, many details are lost, but the ones that remain become more detailed and specific, often in inaccurate ways. While rumors, gossip, and conspiracy theories have appeared throughout history, modern technology has changed them; they can spread more quickly through larger numbers of people and leap social networks.

Granovetter's theory of weak ties explains the spread of rumors and conspiracy theories. Information tends to circulate within social groups. For information to leap from group to group—or network to network—it is necessary for some people to have ties to more than one group, who can move information between networks. The more two people's networks are identical, the stronger the bond between them is likely to be. Groups whose members are all strongly bonded to each other and whose members have few outside acquaintances are likely to circulate information within the group but unlikely to obtain much new information through other networks. In contrast, people who share little of each others' social networks are likely to be connected by a weak tie. Weak ties link people in different [Page 169]networks and are thus the pathways for the spread of information between groups.

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