Role of Entertainment, Social Goals, and Accuracy Concerns in Knowingly Spreading Questionable Brand Rumors

Accuracy goals are central to communication theory. Consistent with this perspective, a comprehensive review suggests that rumors are spread largely for accuracy reasons—either because transmitters, in fact, believe the rumors are true or for the purpose of verification through sense-making (DiFonzo and Bordia 2007). This literature also suggests that rumors can be spread in service of social goals such as affiliation (Rosnow 1991), for instance, by passing on social rumors about disliked out-groups to strengthen ties with the in-group. Our own research focused on brand rumors and suggests that entertainment is a common reason that such rumors are shared. Moreover, we show entertaining rumors serve social affiliation goals, and that the social benefits of spreading entertaining rumors can dominate private concerns about their inaccuracy. Social goals also led consumers to embellish the rumors they spread in order to make them more entertaining and to share rumors over factual brand information. These entertainment effects are shown to be independent of any alternative sense-making or affect sharing explanations for transmitting questionable rumors. Theoretically speaking, the entertainment effects identified here offer a novel explanation for the spread of questionable or implausible rumors. That is, we show consumers will knowingly spread implausible rumors just because they offer a good story for entertaining others. This idea has important practical implications for brand strategies dealing with misleading rumors.