"On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done" by Cass R. Sunstein

A short book needed today in response to people's behaviors, posts and the emotional reactions gone rampant.

Rumors spread all the time. It doesn't just happen in school or at the workplace as we're sure many of us have witnessed (our sympathies go to those who have been subject of one in the past). At under 100 pages, you're looking at a book that's much needed today given the information shared and behaviors of people that read them. As mentioned at the start of this book, author Sunstein made it perfectly clear that rumors not only change the perspective about a person, place or business, but it can also damage their well-being and, in some instances, kill them. Reports and information must be approached cautiously from here on out, and failure to do so, proves the validity of points made in this book. In other words, it is us who are responsible for partaking, reacting and processing every information that's shared, told and reported on a daily basis. (Yes, rumors are one of the "seeds" that can brew misinformation as well.)

The average person knows very well that rumors are nothing new. Author Cass Sunstein starts with examples about information—rumors—spread about politicians, 9/11, and businesses that have thrived since the 2008 presidential election. He immediately went to work about how and why rumors spread, despite its attempt to either challenge people's beliefs, gain some kind of clout, or don't care to have any power thereof and want to inflict damage for the heck of it. These three factors is something many of us, even if we're not social psychologists, must be in our minds the moment we enage in discussions or conversations with regard to what's happening. Sunstein introduces plenty of examples, along with some social experiments, dictating the behaviors people partake and/or respond to that lays the groundwork as to why people are inclined to believe in the "popular opinion." Yes, even if such opinion is false, people will still believe it thinking that such thing brings them in the "minority." It seems, according to Sunstein, people want some sort of acceptance that coincides with their own thoughts and assumptions. I don't know about you, but wanting to secure one's own thoughts and beliefs, no matter its truth value(s), sounds like insecurity. It's this crave for noteriety, power and individualism, to think that because they're not like the others makes them "different and unique." There are countless of videos online that portray this—people breaking off family, friends and loved ones over politics, what they read from the news media and what others have been saying online. Others have made a series of videos exploiting and shaming those who partake in such falsehoods, while challenging and triggering those who disagree. In other words, the behavioral theories mentioned in this book accomplished as a reality check, analyzing and talking about the exact behaviors people are likely to pursue the midst of something reported or learned.

Sunstein provided great phases when detecting and sensing bias without getting too caught up nor emotionally threatened by others. These points involve some the experiments mentioned earlier in how people behave and react to certain happenings, how it affects their perceptions and thought processes. For example, if a song is voted most popular, the person will likely gravitate toward listening and recommended that very song because others find it favorable. However, there's that moment where if someone would rather listen to a soundtrack that isn't as popular, they may be casted out from the 'group' and may be targetted as someone who knows nothing about a good song. Does this behavior sound similar? Honestly, this polarizing action has been going on for years, and it's gotten to the very extreme—something Sunstein made mention as well. Thanks to politics, along with other "pick a side" situations that have occurred from sports to entertainment, people have become more and more distant from each other. Just proves that something as powerful as rumors can cause, no matter how ridiculous or false it comes off, but nevertheless, it sure is working.

"Emotions get in the way of truth-seeking," says Sunstein—possibly our favorite statement in the book. We find these emotionally distraught people are one of the most difficult to rationalize with. Sunstein did mention of the term "echo chamber" as well as those realizing the reality of situations they were told otherwise. It's like they don't want to think nor believe that what they've been taught and learned has been challenged nor realized it was all one big lie, but they also refuse to accept it. We've watched a handful of bodycam videos on YouTube, and realize the patterns among these people's behaviors leading up to their arrests. It's like the world has suddenly turned into one planetary day care center: The smart, normal people have to step in to discipline those who can't handle certain situations, especially if they know very well they did something wrong. No wonder people are tired of being tired.

Last part of this book goes over the legalities involved with rumors, whether done by accident or on purpose. This goes over the possibility of likely taking legal action, if necessary, and liable when it comes to paying forward any possible damage done from journalism to ordinary people (content creators and/or bloggers). Like this book itself, this area should be revisited given all that's posted and shared today. It's hard to fathom since what's been going on has triggered people to post things or pursue violence, like destroying other people's cars, or even posting meltdown videos sharing a kind of "plan" to combat what occurred in the space of entertainment and politics (some of those videos posted are federal offenses, as we hope they've been punished and apprehended for posting such videos). Either way, those who are studying or well-versed in law will find this part of the book to be a treat. For those living outside the United States, your laws may or may not be applicable in such space, but it's best to see in case something like this ever comes up. Since internet is part of our everyday lives, it's best to familiarize yourselves with this in relation to your country's law(s) going forward. After all, international news making reports about other countries also have an effect similar to ones shared locally/domestically.

This book packs a wallop. Reading it made us think of all that's going on today, as many of us witnessed the 2024 presidential election here in the United States. Social commentary hosts online mean they have a big job they're 100% fully responsible for, as it is an opportunity to talk about topics that can brew rumors—done by happenstance or on purpose. We, the readers ourselves, should be super careful about who and what to trust, and if that means just believing in what you've researched and ignoring all that's going on, great! However, given the status of today, many people including ourselves are tired; We are burnt out from the anger, frustration, having to rationalize stories and situations notwithstanding our concerns; We have also grown tired of the illogical complaints people say and make when apprehended by police, when they know deep down they did something wrong trying to avoid responsibility. For those of you outside the United States and reading this, yes, that is the state of today's citizens: People becoming and acting beligerent, crying fowl and injustice the moment they get caught for doing something illegal, then blame others by gender and race when they're punished. I'm amazed that those within my age and older act more childish than children. All this stems from what these peoples' upbringings were like, such as lack of accountability, virtue signaling and flat out just wanting attention and respect for themselves—the same people who are likely going to overreact when learning something in regards to rumors or any information that bares further evaluation.

As short as this book is, there isn't a table of contents nor is there an index. You can breeze through this book in one sitting, but the information provided really will make you think and reflect. If you've spent enough time online, especially popular areas of communication like Reddit, TikTok or YouTube, I'm sure you'll be fascinated with what Sunstein wrote here. This book needs to be resurfaced, as the behaviors of people online, with allegations of bots leaving comments to derail discussions and/or "rage bait," are seeds for rumors to start. Psychologically speaking, seeing the behaviors of people today, it's time we make a strong effort to analyze and fix the problem because it's not going to get better. Then again, once the problem(s) have been fixed, will social commentary still be a viable format to produce?

There's too much to be said in regards to rumors and the behaviors it leads people to. We feel an entire website can be dedicated to talking about it. There's too much to unpack and analyze. Let this simple, inexpensive book guide you to knowing the goings-on among the populace today. Highly recommended!

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he started blogging in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, plus playing old video/MS-DOS games, digital video archiving, listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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