Doctoral thesis finds rumours help people navigate uncertainty

Rumours emerge inevitably because people understand the world around them in different ways, and they can restore a sense of certainty during troubled times, ERR reported, citing a doctoral thesis defended at the University of Tartu.

“People spread rumours because they may no longer trust authorities. At the same time, they need to feel that they can make sense of the world around them,” said Hongjin Song, who recently defended a doctorate in semiotics at the university.

Rumours often surface during crises, when people’s ability to make decisions about their own lives may be limited. Denying them can sometimes make them appear more credible, especially when central authorities have lost public trust, Song said.

As an example, Song cited a rumour that circulated in Estonia after the Bronze Soldier statue was removed in 2007: that Russia would now invade Estonia. People wanted to understand why the statue had been removed and what consequences would follow, he said.

Song examined rumours from a semiotic perspective, looking at why they arise, how they circulate and disappear, and why a phenomenon comes to be labelled a rumour in the first place. In his analysis, rumours form part of the process through which people try to understand the world around them.

Rumours arise because information about the world is never equally available to everyone. People come from different cultures, have different memories of the past and hold different understandings of their surroundings. These differences in knowledge can produce interpretations that conflict with one another.

Song treated rumours as cultural texts operating at a middle level of culture. Drawing on the work of semiotician Juri Lotman, he identified three functions of rumours: creating something new, transmitting existing information and evoking the past. He said every rumour has causes and roots in the past.

For example, a city legend circulated in postwar Tartu that a sausage factory in the city centre made sausages from human flesh. At the time, older women sold sausage pastries in the streets, while many notices reported missing people. Locals also had fresh memories of the violence experienced during the war.

“People always need an interpretation,” Song said.