Nicholas Difonzo

• PhD, Social & Organizational Psychology
• Associate Professor at Roberts Wesleyan College

An ocean of rumors, hearsay, half-truths, fake news, factoids, speculations, and conspiracy theories engulfs us. Rumor is a pervasive characteristic of human communication, a quintessentially social activity in service of making meaning. It is not surprising then that rumor has attracted attention from ancient peoples, from a wide array of scholarl...

Using forgiveness theory, we investigated the effects of organizational apology and restitution on eliciting forgiveness of a transgressing organization after transactional psychological contract breach. Forgiveness theory proposes that victims are more likely to forgive offenders when victims’ positive offender-oriented emotions replace negative o...

Using a Christian psychology approach, rumor is conceptualized as shared information and stories that are: 1) seen as unsubstantiated, 2) embedded within theological narratives, 3) spiritually-dimensioned, and 4) embraced or rejected. This conception accomplishes four goals that explicitly address epistemological, theological, metaphysical, and vol...

Social psychologists have been researching the psychology of rumor for nearly a century. Using the rumor psychology framework leads us to see conspiracy theories as stories that are communicated from person to person and in groups. Why do people spread conspiracy theories, in what sorts of relationships and community networks are they spread, and w...

Research on the illusory truth effect has found that repeated presentation of uncertain statements increases validity judgments of those statements. Three experiments explored the shape of the repetition–validity–judgment relationship over multiple repetitions, the mediating role of processing fluency, and the moderating role of dispositional skept...

The role of network structure in intergroup differentiation-the bipolarization of stereotypes that are defensive (ingroup-positive/outgroup-negative) and non-defensive (outgroup-positive/ingroup-negative)-was investigated using a Dynamic Social Impact Theory (DSIT) framework. Three computer-mediated laboratory social network experiments were pooled...

Two studies that examined the role of revenge in rumor transmission and involved working adults as participants are reported. Study 1 used hypothetical scenarios to manipulate organizational treatment of an employee and the believability of a rumor. Participants had higher intention to transmit a harmful rumor when the organization broke job-relate...

The “bottom-up” self-organization of shared sense-making and group decision-making through rumor (unverified information statements in circulation) was investigated in two computer-mediated laboratory experiments on the effects of network clustering (i.e., structural “cliquishness”). Participants in 27 (Study 1) and 33 (Study 2) 16-person laborator...

A two-step agent-based mathematical model of negative rumor spread in the context of conflicting groups is presented. The GBN-Dialogue model builds on rumor theory, focuses on person-to-person interaction characteristics,and is dynamical. The model first estimates the probability of rumor transmission between two persons based on their transmission...

Work on how rumours arise and spread could help to dampen the effects of damaging misinformation circulating on the Internet, says Nicholas DiFonzo.

Using a sense-making and threat management framework in rumor psychology, the authors used an exploratory web survey (n = 169) to query members of online cancer discussion groups about informal cancer statements heard from nonmedical sources (i.e., cancer rumors). Respondents perceived that rumors helped them cope. Dread rumors exceeded wish rumors...

Rumors are shaped and spread within communities, affected by who we find credible and what we find plausible. This article explores the power and value of shared knowledge.

Politicians do it, corporations do it, and defendants in court do it. Many social encounters involve denials of rumours or accusations of wrongdoing. However, denials are not always effective. Sometimes, denials lead to an even more negative evaluation of the target of the rumour (in other words, the denial 'boomerangs'). We argue that this is more...

In some situations, rumors come to reflect reality quite well and in others they become fantastic. Why? This article summarizes research on rumor accuracy. It considers rumors as unverified statements in circulation, and rumor discussion as serving group sensemaking and threat-management functions. It also explores a complementary view of rumors as...

Using networked computers in laboratory experiments to investigate group dynamics currently requires the creation of special program application software. Design considerations for a useable graphical user interface (GUI) in such software are discussed in this paper. We describe SOCIALSENSE communication software created to experimentally test the...

Rumors are information statements in circulation that lack a solid basis of evidence. They typically arise in contexts that are unclear or threatening and are passed along in an attempt to gain clarity or reduce risk (DiFonzo, 2008). Rumors are, first of all, declarative statements that purport to tell us something, and—especially in contradistinct...

Propaganda is goal-oriented communication that employs (to one degree or another) deceptive tactics. The term derives from the Latin word propagare, meaning to spread plants to new locations. To spread propaganda originally meant to disseminate information in order to promote a cause, idea, or action (Rogers, 2007). In modern times, propaganda has...

In a rapidly changing world, with constantly shifting dynamics, organizational change may prove essential if businesses are to continue to succeed. The majority of research on organizational change adopts a macro outlook, focusing on strategic issues from the perspective of the organization and its management. In this volume we undertake a micro pe...

The terms ‘gossip’ and ‘urban legend’ are often used interchangeably with ‘rumor’ by both naïve laypersons and professional scholars. Consider our students as naïve laypersons: When asked to evaluate the terms ‘rumor’ and ‘gossip’ along certain dimensions, they rate them almost identically. When asked to ‘think of a rumor’, they frequently report a...

Each day, we struggle to distinguish rumor from fact. Did the U.S. government blow up levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina? Did American soldiers use night-vision goggles to spy on Iraqi women in Fallujah during the Iraqi War? These reports, taken from national and international media accounts, turned out to be false. In Rumor Psychology...

In this chapter we identify the psychological factors underlying rumor spread. We focus on the individual-level psychological motivations involved--that is, what are people trying to accomplish when transmitting a rumor? The psychological literature on rumor has identified five variables related to rumor transmission: uncertainty, importance or out...

Rumors collected from a large public hospital undergoing change were content analyzed, and a typology comprising the following five broad types of change-related rumors was developed: rumors about changes to job and working conditions, nature of organizational change, poor change management, consequences of the change for organizational performance...

Denial is a commonly used strategy to rebut a false rumor. However, there is a dearth of empirical research on the effectiveness of denials in combating rumors. Treating denials as persuasive messages, we conducted 3 laboratory-based simulation studies testing the overall effectiveness of denials in reducing belief and anxiety associated with an e-...

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Uncertainty is a major source of psychological strain during organizational change. This study tested a model of change-related communication, uncertainty, and control and their relationship with psychological strain, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Self-report data were obtained from staff at a psychiatric hospital undergoing restructur...

Rumor discourse has been conceptualized as an attempt to reduce anxiety and uncertainty via a process of social sensemaking. Fourteen rumors transmitted on various Internet discussion groups were observed and content analyzed over the life of each rumor With this (previously unavailable) more ecologically robust methodology, the intertwined threads...

Rumors collected from a large public hospital undergoing change were content analyzed, and a typology comprising the following five broad types of change-related rumors was developed: rumors about changes to job and working conditions, nature of organizational change, poor change management, consequences of the change for organizational performance...

Two stock-market simulation experiments investigated the notion that rumors that invoke stable-cause attributions spawn illusory associations and less regressive predictions and behavior. In Study 1, illusory perceptions of association and stable causation (rumors caused price changes on the day after they appeared) existed despite rigorous conditi...

Rumor research, in general, and its delayed incorporation of the work, of rumor researcher Jamuna Prasad, in particular, exemplify how the intellectual climate of American social psychology discouraged the development of social approaches. In the present paper, we explain his conceptualization of how rumors start and spread, and explore findings fr...

An integrated model relating workplace rumor activity, belief, and accuracy is proposed and tested. Senior VPs of Communications from a sample of Fortune-500 corporations and CEOs of established public relations firms were surveyed regarding rumor episodes that they had experienced. Results confirmed previous research on the role of uncertainty, an...

Effect of source honesty and appropriateness on effectiveness of rumor denial was tested. When the source was perceived as high on honesty, the denial was more successful in reducing belief and anxiety associated with the rumor. Source appropriateness (operationalized as a combination of source knowledgeability and status) did not have a main effec...

This study investigated current practices for screening new entrants to schools. A mail survey was conducted of 755 public- and private-school districts in New York State to ascertain the procedures and instruments used to conduct kindergarten screening. Fifty-one percent (385) of the districts responded. Thirty percent of the districts reported th...

Seventy-four experienced public relations professionals serving top global corporations were surveyed to investigate types of organizational rumors, their prevalence and effects, effectiveness of rumor management strategies, and associated psychological and situational variables. Results showed that harmful rumors are commonplace, especially during...

There is a dearth of research focusing on developmental changes in computer-mediated communication groups. In this study, developmental patterns in 14 informal groups on computer-mediated networks were analyzed using the Group Development Observation System. Results indicated marked similarity between the patterns found with the CMC groups in this...

Ineffective strategies of communicating about organizational change (e.g., corporate restructuring, mergers, downsizing) are earmarked by the presence of pervasive rumors that flourish in a climate of uncertainty. Using 15 structured field interviews with management and public relations personnel from multinational corporations, this article posits...

Microworlds (MWs) are dynamic computer-generated environments that subjects interact with in the laboratory and that simulate conditions encountered in the field. Precise levels of experimental control and improved accuracy and efficiency of data collection procedures are characteristic of MWs. It is proposed that these benefits are achieved with c...

Source appropriateness in denying rumors of organizational change was investigated in a laboratory context. As predicted, results revealed that the denial by the source highest in organizational position was not the most effective. Instead, the source most successful in reducing anxiety associated with the rumor and belief in the rumor was the one...

It is proposed that by making sense of unpredictable price movements, rumors spawn anti-regressive predictions and adversely affect trading decisions despite investor denigration of rumors. Two experimental stock market simulations investigated these ideas. Subjects were presented with news (Study 1) and published and unpublished rumors (Study 2) w...

Discusses rumor theory and proposes guidelines to prevent and confront rumors that can do harm. Rumor is unverified information, usually of local or current interest, intended primarily for belief. Rumors are similar to news, they spring from collective concerns, and are intended for belief (as opposed to gossip as entertainment), when reliable inf...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Temple University, 1994. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-149).