Study from Tartu: Rumors help people cope with uncertainty
A doctoral thesis defended at the University of Tartu explains why rumors emerge during crises and how they help people restore a sense of understanding about the world. Researcher Hongjin Song found that information is only labeled a "rumor" after it has spread, usually when authorities deny it.
Hongjin Song has defended her PhD in semiotics at the University of Tartu, examining why rumors arise and how they function in society. According to her research, rumors are inevitable because every individual interprets the surrounding world differently, shaped by their own culture and memory.
Song explains that rumors tend to spread during turbulent times, when people's control over their own lives is limited and trust in authorities has weakened. As an example, she cites the events in Estonia in 2007, when the relocation of the Bronze Soldier statue triggered rumors that Russia would invade.
Rumors as cultural texts
In her dissertation, Song treats rumors as cultural texts that operate at a level between individual opinion and broad cultural dynamics. Drawing on the work of Juri Lotman, she identifies three functions of rumors: generating new ideas, transmitting existing information, and evoking the past. As a historical example, she points to a post-World War II legend in Tartu claiming a local sausage factory used human flesh, a story fueled by numerous missing-person reports at the time.
A key finding of Song's research is that information is only labeled a "rumor" after it has already circulated, typically once authorities declare it false. However, such denials can make rumors even more believable, especially when public trust in institutions is already low.
Song compares the spread of rumors to underwater currents — once the pressure that created a rumor shifts to a new issue, the earlier rumor fades away. She observed this pattern herself during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, where both rumors and public anxieties changed rapidly.
Asked whether digital media has fundamentally changed how rumors spread, Song remains cautious, arguing that technology merely acts as a catalyst that speeds up circulation rather than creating an entirely new phenomenon. Song defended her dissertation, titled "Semiotic Anatomy of Rumour: Social Discourse, 'False Memory', and Infection," on August 18 at the University of Tartu.
