http://professornick.com Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:19:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://professornick.com/article/gossip-the-bad-the-good-the-ugly/ http://professornick.com/article/gossip-the-bad-the-good-the-ugly/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:19:35 +0000 admin http://professornick.com/?p=292 A recent blog from Psychology Today on this perennially favorite topic.]]> http://professornick.com/article/gossip-the-bad-the-good-the-ugly/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/too-bad-to-be-false/ http://professornick.com/article/too-bad-to-be-false/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:31:30 +0000 admin http://professornick.com/?p=288 Writing in The Nation, columnist Reed Richardson uses insights from The Watercooler Effect to criticize the press for spreading anti-Obama-administration rumors (link).]]> http://professornick.com/article/too-bad-to-be-false/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/twitter-rumors/ http://professornick.com/article/twitter-rumors/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:30:44 +0000 admin http://professornick.com/?p=284 Fascinating WSJ article, and video about the use of twitter, but especially a) how twitter activity filtered out truth versus rumor after a Chilean earthquake, and b) the use of tweet dissemination patterns to uncover misinformation campaigns.  ]]> http://professornick.com/article/twitter-rumors/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/gossip-2/portrait-of-a-20th-century-washington-gossip/ http://professornick.com/gossip-2/portrait-of-a-20th-century-washington-gossip/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:21:29 +0000 admin http://professornick.com/?p=273 Gossip Part 1: Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Portrait of a political gossip-monger.   ]]> http://professornick.com/gossip-2/portrait-of-a-20th-century-washington-gossip/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/gossip-is-good-even-in-the-lab/ http://professornick.com/article/gossip-is-good-even-in-the-lab/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:38:30 +0000 admin http://www.profnick.com/blog/?p=99 The primary functions of gossip are to inform, influence, entertain, enhance friendship, reinforce moral standards, and help in making decisions. Gossip helps us to understand our own abilities, shortcomings, and problems, and sets parameters for our behavior… continued…

]]> http://professornick.com/article/gossip-is-good-even-in-the-lab/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/caltech-earthquake-rumor-shakes-twittersphere/ http://professornick.com/article/caltech-earthquake-rumor-shakes-twittersphere/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:52:18 +0000 admin http://www.profnick.com/blog/?p=106 For several days, a rumor has been spreading wildly over the internet, compliments of Twitter and Facebook. It started with a tweet that claimed Caltech was sending employees and students home because seismologists were predicting a major earthquake was about to hit the Southland… continued…

]]> http://professornick.com/article/caltech-earthquake-rumor-shakes-twittersphere/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/twitterglitter-com-%e2%80%93-celeb-death-rumors-catch-fire-online/ http://professornick.com/article/twitterglitter-com-%e2%80%93-celeb-death-rumors-catch-fire-online/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:00:51 +0000 admin http://www.profnick.com/blog/?p=57 “Just hearing about celebrities dying makes it seem more probable,” says Nicholas DiFonzo, author of “The Watercooler Effect” and a psychology professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. “So [the rumors] tend to occur in an… continued…

]]> http://professornick.com/article/twitterglitter-com-%e2%80%93-celeb-death-rumors-catch-fire-online/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/expert-on-rumors-offers-his-advice-north-dakota-business-watch/ http://professornick.com/article/expert-on-rumors-offers-his-advice-north-dakota-business-watch/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:00:16 +0000 admin http://www.profnick.com/blog/?p=55 Nicholas DiFonzo, psychology professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, has studied rumors, hearsay and gossip since 1992. DiFonzo is currently leading a project funded by the National Science Foundation to study how rumors spread…? continued…

]]> http://professornick.com/article/expert-on-rumors-offers-his-advice-north-dakota-business-watch/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/mind-matters-gossip-in-the-lab-%e2%80%94-proceed-with-caution/ http://professornick.com/article/mind-matters-gossip-in-the-lab-%e2%80%94-proceed-with-caution/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:59:38 +0000 admin http://www.profnick.com/blog/?p=53 “Gossip has a bad reputation, which, for the most part, is well-deserved,” says Nicholas DiFonzo, a psychologist at the Rochester Institute of Technology in… continued…

]]> http://professornick.com/article/mind-matters-gossip-in-the-lab-%e2%80%94-proceed-with-caution/feed/ 0 http://professornick.com/article/in-the-books-%e2%80%93-off-to-the-printers-v-%c2%ab-800-ceo-read-daily-blog/ http://professornick.com/article/in-the-books-%e2%80%93-off-to-the-printers-v-%c2%ab-800-ceo-read-daily-blog/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:58:53 +0000 admin http://www.profnick.com/blog/?p=51 In The Watercooler Effect, Nicholas DiFonzo explains how stories, in the form of gossip and rumors, can take flight even in the midst of contradicting data. DiFonzo, like all authors in the field of human behavior, offers solutions to… continued…

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