Editing Rumor (section)

{{Short description|Unverified message or story}}
{{About|a type of message||Rumor (disambiguation)|and|Rumors (disambiguation)}}
{{Use American English|date=June 2019}}
[[File:WPA-Rumor-Poster.jpg|200px|thumb|right|A 1930s [[Works Progress Administration]] poster depicts a man with WPA shovel attacking a [[wolf]] labeled '<nowiki/>''rumor'''.]]
A '''rumor''' ([[American English]]), or '''rumour''' ([[British English]]; [[American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or|see spelling differences]]; derived from Latin {{wikt-lang|la|rumorem}} 'noise'), is an unverified piece of information circulating among people, especially without solid evidence.<ref name="definition">{{Cite journal|last1=Peterson|first1=Warren|last2=Gist|first2=Noel|title=Rumor and Public Opinion|journal=The American Journal of Sociology|volume=57|issue=2|pages=159–167|date=September 1951|doi=10.1086/220916|jstor=2772077|s2cid=144746516}}</ref>

In the [[social sciences]], a rumor involves a form of a statement whose truthfulness or honesty is not quickly or ever confirmed. In addition, some scholars have identified rumor as a subset of [[propaganda]]. [[Sociology]], [[psychology]], and communication studies have widely varying definitions of rumor.<ref>Pendleton, S.C. (1998), 'Rumor research revisited and expanded', ''Language & Communication'', vol. 1. no. 18, pp. 69–86.</ref>

Rumors are also often discussed with regard to [[misinformation]] and [[disinformation]] (the former often seen as simply false and the latter seen as deliberately false, though usually from a government source given to the media or a foreign government).<ref>from Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989</ref>