Editing Telephone game

{{Short description|Children's game}}
{{hatnote group|
{{for-multi|the coordination game in game theory|Telephone game (game theory)|games played on mobile phones|Mobile game}}
{{redirect|Chinese whispers||Chinese Whispers (disambiguation)|Chinese Whispers}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox game
| italic title  = no
| image         = Child whispering.jpg
| name          = Telephone&nbsp;/ Chinese whispers
| genre         = [[Children's games]]
| players       = Three or more
| setup_time    = None
| playing_time  = User determined
| random_chance = Medium
| skills        = Speaking, listening
}}

'''Telephone''' ([[American English]] and [[Canadian English]]),<ref name="Blackmore">{{cite book|title=The Meme Machine|last=Blackmore|first=Susan J.|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2000|isbn=0-19-286212-X|page=x|quote=The form and timing of the tic undoubtedly mutated over the generations, as in the childhood game of Chinese Whispers (Americans call it telephone)}}</ref> or '''Chinese whispers''' (some [[Commonwealth English]]), is an internationally popular [[children's game]] in which messages are whispered from person to person and then the original and final messages are compared.<ref name="OED">{{Cite OED |term=Chinese whispers |id=8820793634 |date=March 2024 |access-date=16 August 2024}}</ref> This sequential modification of information is called [[Transmission chain method|transmission chaining]] in the context of [[cultural evolution]] research, and is primarily used to identify the type of information that is more easily passed on from one person to another.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=2607337 | year=2008 | last1=Mesoudi | first1=A. | last2=Whiten | first2=A. | title=The multiple roles of cultural transmission experiments in understanding human cultural evolution | journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences | volume=363 | issue=1509 | pages=3489–3501 | doi=10.1098/rstb.2008.0129 | pmid=18801720 }}</ref>

Players form a line or circle, and the first player comes up with a message and whispers it to the ear of the second person in the line. The second player repeats the message to the third player, and so on. When the last player is reached, they announce the message they just heard, to the entire group. The first person then compares the original message with the final version. Although the objective is to pass around the message without it becoming garbled along the way, part of the enjoyment is that, regardless, this usually ends up happening. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly from that of the first player, usually with amusing or humorous effect. Reasons for changes include anxiousness or impatience, erroneous corrections, or the difficult-to-understand mechanism of whispering.

The game is often played by children as a party game or on the playground.  It is often invoked as a [[metaphor]] for cumulative error, especially the inaccuracies as rumours or gossip spread,<ref name="Blackmore"/> or, more generally, for the unreliability of typical human recollection.

The telephone game has also been simulated using [[Large language model|Large Language Models]] (LLMs). Research indicates that [[Artificial intelligence|AI systems]] exhibit a similar phenomenon: information gradually distorts as it passes through a chain of LLMs. This occurs when the same content is continuously refined, paraphrased, or reprocessed, with each output becoming the input for the next iteration.<ref>{{cite arXiv |eprint=2502.20258 |last1=Mohamed |first1=Amr |last2=Geng |first2=Mingmeng |last3=Vazirgiannis |first3=Michalis |last4=Shang |first4=Guokan |title=LLM as a Broken Telephone: Iterative Generation Distorts Information |date=2025 |class=cs.CL }}</ref>

==Etymology==
===United Kingdom, Australian, and New Zealand usage===
[[Image:Greatwall large.jpg|thumb|The Great Wall, one potential origin of the name "Chinese whispers"]]
In the UK, Australia and New Zealand, the game is typically called "Chinese whispers"; in the UK, this is documented from 1964.<ref name="Marin1">{{cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Gary |title=Phrase Finder: Chinese Whispers |url=https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/chinese-whispers.html |website=Phrase Finder |access-date=27 January 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124163920/https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/chinese-whispers.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Strahan1">{{cite journal |last1=Strahan |first1=Lachlan |title='THE LUCK OF A CHINAMAN': IMAGES OF THE CHINESE IN POPULAR AUSTRALIAN SAYINGS |journal=East Asian History |date=June 1992 |issue=3 |page=71 |url=http://www.eastasianhistory.org/sites/default/files/article-content/03/EAH03_03.pdf |access-date=26 January 2021 |publisher=Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University |archive-date=31 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131143826/http://www.eastasianhistory.org/sites/default/files/article-content/03/EAH03_03.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

Various accounts have been suggested for naming the game after the Chinese, but there is no concrete explanation.<ref name="Chu1" /> One suggested account is a widespread British fascination with Chinese culture in the 18th and 19th centuries during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]].{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} Another account posits that the game's name stems from the supposed confused messages created when a message was passed verbally from tower to tower along the [[Great Wall of China]].<ref name="Chu1">{{cite book |last1=Chu |first1=Ben |title=Chinese Whispers Why Everything You've Heard About China is Wrong |date=2013 |publisher=Orion |isbn=9780297868460 |page=Introduction |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9CLuryIpHJMC&q=%22Chinese+Whispers%22 |access-date=27 January 2021 |archive-date=25 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425072647/https://books.google.com/books?id=9CLuryIpHJMC&q=%22Chinese+Whispers%22 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Critics who focus on Western use of the word ''Chinese'' as denoting "confusion" and "incomprehensibility" look to the earliest contacts between Europeans and Chinese people in the 17th century, attributing it to a supposed inability on the part of Europeans to understand China's culture and worldview.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dale|first=Corinne H.|title=Chinese Aesthetics and Literature: A Reader|year=2004|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=New York|isbn=0-7914-6022-3|pages=15–25}}</ref> In this view, using the phrase "Chinese whispers" is taken as evidence of a belief that the [[Chinese language]] itself is not understandable.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fabulous Orients: fictions of the East in England, 1662–1785 |url=https://archive.org/details/fabulousorientsf00ball |url-access=limited |isbn=0-19-926733-2 |first=Rosalind |last=Ballaster |authorlink=Rosalind Ballaster |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fabulousorientsf00ball/page/n216 202]–3 |quote=The sinophobic name points to a centuries-old tradition in Europe of representing spoken Chinese as an incomprehensible and unpronounceable combination of sounds. |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2005}}</ref> [[Yunte Huang]], a professor of English at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]], has said that: "Indicating inaccurately transmitted information, the expression 'Chinese Whispers' carries with it a sense of paranoia caused by espionage, counterespionage, Red Scare, and other war games, real or imaginary, cold or hot."<ref name="Huang1">{{cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Yunte |date=Spring 2015 |title=Chinese Whispers |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/vergstudglobasia.1.1.0066 |url-status=live |journal=Verge: Studies in Global Asias |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=66–69 |doi=10.5749/vergstudglobasia.1.1.0066 |jstor=10.5749/vergstudglobasia.1.1.0066 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131010553/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/vergstudglobasia.1.1.0066 |archive-date=31 January 2021 |access-date=25 January 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Usage of the term has been defended as being similar to other expressions such as "[[Greek to me|It's all Greek to me]]" and "[[wikt:double Dutch|Double Dutch]]".<ref>{{cite news |title=MasterChef contestant under fire for using old saying 'Chinese whispers' |url=https://startsat60.com/media/news/chinese-whispers-racist-masterchef-australia |access-date=27 January 2021 |work=Starts at 60 |date=3 June 2018}}</ref> "Double Dutch" as an expression for unintelligibility originated in England as a derogatory smear against [[Holland]], its rival in various wars.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Socolovsky |first=Jerome |date=March 25, 2023 |title=It's Not a 'Chinese' Virus: Let's Avoid Pernicious Shorthands |url=https://training.npr.org/2020/03/25/its-not-a-chinese-virus-or-a-hindu-mob-ways-to-avoid-pernicious-shorthands/ |access-date= |website=NPR}}</ref>

===Alternative names===

As the game is popular among children worldwide, it is also known under various other names depending on locality, such as ''Russian scandal'',<ref>Gryski, Camilla (1998). ''Let's Play: Traditional Games of Childhood'', p.36. Kids Can. {{ISBN|1550744976}}.</ref> ''Russian gossip,'' ''Russian telephone,<ref name="Huang1" />'' ''whisper down the lane'', ''broken telephone'', ''operator'', ''grapevine'', ''gossip'', ''secret message'', ''the messenger game'', and ''pass the message'', among others.<ref name="Blackmore" /> In Turkey, this game is called ''kulaktan kulağa'', which means "from (one) ear to (another) ear". In France, it is called ''téléphone arabe'' ("Arabic telephone") or ''téléphone sans fil'' ("wireless telephone").<ref>{{Cite web|date=13 November 2011|title=Le téléphone arabe : règle du jeu, origine, variantes et idées de phrase|url=https://www.jeuxetcompagnie.fr/animation-enfants-telephone-arabe/|url-status=live|access-date=20 April 2021|website=Jeux et Compagnie|language=fr-FR|quote=Arabic telephone, or the wireless telephone, consists of having a sentence created by the first player and then recited aloud by the last player after circulating rapidly by word of mouth through a line of players. The interest of the game is to compare the final version of the sentence with its initial version. Indeed, with the possible errors of articulation, pronunciation, confusions between words and sounds, the final sentence can be completely different from the initial one.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929010652/http://www.jeuxetcompagnie.fr:80/animation-enfants-telephone-arabe/ |archive-date=29 September 2012 }}</ref> In Germany the game is known as ''Stille Post'' ("quiet mail"). In Czechia, it is known as ''tichá pošta'', also meaning "quiet mail". In Poland it is called ''głuchy telefon'', meaning "deaf telephone". In [[Medici]]-era Florence it was called the "game of the ear".<ref name="Murphy1">{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=Caroline P. |title=Murder of a Medici Princess |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=9780199839896 |page=157 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YkIzZAd_fGUC |access-date=25 January 2021 |archive-date=12 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512215146/https://books.google.com/books?id=YkIzZAd_fGUC |url-status=live }}</ref>

In North America, the game is known under the name ''telephone''.<ref name="Jonsson et al">{{cite book |last1=Jonsson |first1=Emelie |last2=Carroll |first2=Joseph |last3=Clasen |first3=Mathias |title=Evolutionary Perspectives on Imaginative Culture |date=2020 |isbn=9783030461904 |page=284 |publisher=Springer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_35DwAAQBAJ |access-date=25 January 2021 |archive-date=25 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425072649/https://books.google.com/books?id=9_35DwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Alternative names used in the United States include ''broken telephone'', ''gossip'', and ''rumors''.<ref name="Hitchcock & Lovis">{{cite book |last1=Hitchcock |first1=Robert K. |last2=Lovis |first2=William A. |title=Information and Its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands |date=31 December 2011 |publisher=Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press |isbn=9781938770203 |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-WiRDwAAQBAJ |access-date=25 January 2021}}</ref> This North American name is followed in a number of languages where the game is known by the local language's equivalent of  "broken telephone", such in Malaysia as ''telefon rosak,'' in Israel as "[[:he:טלפון שבור|''טלפון שבור'']]" - literally meaning "broken telephone" in Hebrew ("''telefon shavur''"), in Finland as ''rikkinäinen puhelin'', and in Greece as ''halasmeno tilefono'' (χαλασμένο τηλέφωνο) or ''spasmeno tilefono'' (σπασμένο τηλέφωνο).

==Game==
The game has no winner: the entertainment comes from comparing the original and final messages. Intermediate messages may also be compared; some messages will become unrecognizable after only a few steps.

As well as providing amusement, the game can have educational value.  It shows how easily information can become corrupted by indirect communication. The game has been used in schools to simulate the spread of gossip and its possible harmful effects.<ref>{{cite book |title=Nelson English Bk. 2 Teachers' Resource Book |first=John |last=Jackman |author2=Wendy Wren |isbn=0-17-424605-6 |publisher=Nelson Thornes |year=1999 |chapter=Skills Unit 8: the Chinese princess |quote=Play 'Chinese Whispers' to demonstrate how word-of-mouth messages or stories quickly become distorted}}</ref> It can also be used to teach young children to moderate the volume of their voice,<ref>{{cite book |title=Because We're Worth It: Enhancing Self-esteem in Young Children |first=Margaret |last=Collins  |page=55  |isbn=1-873942-09-5 |year=2001 |publisher=Sage |quote=Explain that speaking quietly can be more effective in communication than shouting, although clarity is important.  You could play "Chinese Whispers" to illustrate this! }}</ref> and how to listen attentively;<ref>{{cite book |title=music works: music education in the classroom with children from five to nine years |first=Kathie  |last=Barrs |year=1994   |publisher=Belair |isbn=0-947882-28-6 |page=48 |quote=Listening skills:...Play Chinese Whispers}}</ref> in this case, a game is a success if the message is transmitted accurately with each child whispering rather than shouting. It can also be used for older or adult learners of a foreign language, where the challenge of speaking comprehensibly, and understanding, is more difficult because of the low volume, and hence a greater mastery of the fine points of pronunciation is required.<ref>For example, see Hill, op. cit.; or {{cite book |title=Lernpunkt Deutsch.: students' book |first=Peter  |last=Morris |author2=Alan Wesson |page=viii |isbn=0-17-440267-8  |publisher=Nelson Thornes |year=2000 |quote=Simple games for practising vocabulary and/or numbers: ... Chinese Whispers: ...the final word is compared with the first to see how similar (or not!) it is. }}</ref>

==Notable games==
In 2008, 1,330 children and celebrities set a world record for the game of Telephone involving the most people. The game was held at the [[Emirates Stadium]] in London and lasted two hours and four minutes. Starting with "together we will make a world of difference", the phrase morphed into "we're setting a record" part way down the chain, and by the end had become simply "haaaaa". The previous record, set in 2006 by the Cycling Club of Chengdu, China, had involved 1,083 people.<ref name="Gulf News 2008">{{cite news |title=Chinese whisper record in London |url=https://gulfnews.com/world/europe/chinese-whisper-record-in-london-1.117989 |access-date=5 December 2022 |work=Gulf News |date=12 July 2008 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205135751/https://gulfnews.com/world/europe/chinese-whisper-record-in-london-1.117989 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="McKenna 2008">{{cite news |last1=McKenna |first1=Jemma |title=Whisper it loud: the record was broken |url=https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/whisper-loud-record-broken/fundraising/article/859333#:~:text=This%20record%2Dbreaking%20Chinese%20whispers,make%20a%20world%20of%20difference%22. |access-date=5 December 2022 |work=Third Sector |date=5 November 2008}}</ref>

In 2017 a new world record was set for the largest game of Telephone in terms of the number of participants by schoolchildren in [[Tauranga]], New Zealand. The chain involved 1,763 school children and other individuals and was held as part of Hearing Week 2017. The starting phrase was "Turn it down".<ref name="Sun Live 2017">{{cite news |title=Psst! Can we beat a world record? |url=https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/148402-psst-can-we-beat-world-record.html |access-date=5 December 2022 |work=Sun Live |date=1 March 2017 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205141054/https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/148402-psst-can-we-beat-world-record.html |url-status=live }}</ref> As of 2022 this remained the world record for the largest game of Telephone by number of participants according to the [[Guinness World Records|Guinness Book of Records]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Largest game of Telephone |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-game-of-chinese-whispers-(telephone)#:~:text=The%20largest%20game%20of%20Chinese,Awareness%20Week%20in%20New%20Zealand. |website=Guinness World Records |access-date=5 December 2022 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205142552/https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-game-of-chinese-whispers-(telephone)#:~:text=The%20largest%20game%20of%20Chinese,Awareness%20Week%20in%20New%20Zealand. |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2012 a global game of Telephone was played spanning 237 individuals speaking seven different languages. Beginning in St Kilda Library in Melbourne, Australia, the starting phrase "Life must be lived as play" (a paraphrase of Plato) had become "He bites snails" by the time the game reached its end in Alaska 26 hours later.<ref name="Smith & Banks 409">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Helen M. |last2=Banks |first2=Peter B. |title=How dangerous conservation ideas can develop through citation errors |journal=Australian Zoologist |date=2017 |volume=38 |issue=3 |page=409 |doi=10.7882/az.2014.047 |url=https://archive.org/details/australian-zoologist-38-408-413/page/409/mode/2up?q=%22Chinese+whispers%22+game |access-date=5 December 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The final results! |url=https://globalgossipgame.com/2012/11/15/the-final-results/ |website=Global Gossip Game website |date=15 November 2012 |access-date=6 August 2023 |archive-date=16 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816091839/https://globalgossipgame.com/2012/11/15/the-final-results/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2013, the Global Gossip Game had 840 participants and travelled to all 7 continents.<ref>{{cite web |title=Global Gossip Game 2013 – final results |url=https://globalgossipgame.com/2013/11/26/global-gossip-game-2013-final-results/ |website=Global Gossip Game website |date=26 November 2013 |access-date=6 August 2023 |archive-date=16 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816091840/https://globalgossipgame.com/2013/11/26/global-gossip-game-2013-final-results/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Variants==
A variant of Telephone is called Rumors. In this version of the game, when players transfer the message, they ''deliberately'' change one or two words of the phrase (often to something more humorous than the previous message). Intermediate messages can be compared. There is a second derivative variant, no less popular than Rumors, known as Mahjong Secrets (UK), or Broken Telephone (US), where the objective is to receive the message from the whisperer and whisper to the next participant the first word or phrase that comes to mind in association with what was heard. At the end, the final phrase is compared to the first in front of all participants.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

[[File:Eat Poop You Cat.jpg|thumb|A game of Eat Poop You Cat, starting with "Only the good die young" and ending with "The three vikings visit Christ".]]
The pen-and-paper game Telephone Pictionary (also known as Eat Poop You Cat<ref name=":0" />) is played by alternately writing and illustrating captions, the paper being folded so that each player can only see the previous participant's contribution.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7NkUJPvgpl0C&pg=PT39|title=Parlour Games for Modern Families|first=Myfanwy|last=Jones|date=4 November 2010|publisher=Penguin Adult|isbn=9781846143472|via=Google Books}}</ref> The game was first implemented online by ''[[Broken Picture Telephone]]'' in early 2007.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Nektan Slots Games & Other Communication Games - Broken Picture Telephone|url=http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/instructions/|access-date=19 September 2020|website=www.brokenpicturetelephone.com|archive-date=16 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516023344/http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/instructions/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Following the success of ''Broken Picture Telephone'',<ref>{{Cite web|title=Best of Casual Gameplay 2009 - Simple Idea Results (browser games) - Jay is games|url=https://jayisgames.com/best-of/2009/simple-idea-results/|access-date=19 September 2020|website=jayisgames.com|archive-date=5 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205103757/https://jayisgames.com/best-of/2009/simple-idea-results/|url-status=live}}</ref> commercial boardgame versions ''[[Telestrations]]''<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/eat-poop-you-cat-telestrations-review/|title=Eat Poop You Cat: A silly, fun, and free party game|website=annarbor.com|access-date=17 March 2018|archive-date=25 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180325071926/http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/eat-poop-you-cat-telestrations-review/|url-status=live}}</ref> and ''[[Cranium (board game)|Cranium Scribblish]]'' were released two years later in 2009. ''[[Drawception]]'', and other websites, also arrived in 2012.

A translation relay is a variant in which the first player produces a text in a given [[language]], together with a basic guide to understanding, which includes a lexicon, an [[interlinear gloss]], possibly a list of grammatical [[morpheme]]s, comments on the meaning of difficult words, etc. (everything except an actual translation). The text is passed on to the following player, who tries to make sense of it and casts it into their language of choice, then repeating the procedure, and so on. Each player only knows the translation done by their immediate predecessor, but customarily the relay master or mistress collects all of them. The relay ends when the last player returns the translation to the beginning player.

Another variant of Telephone is shown on ''[[Ellen's Game of Games]]'' under the name of ''Say Whaaat?''. However, the difference is that the four players will be wearing earmuffs; therefore the players have to read their lips. A similar game, ''Shouting One Out'', in which participants wearing [[noise-canceling headphones]] had to interpret the lip movements of the preceding player, appeared in multiple editions of the [[ITV2]] [[panel game]] series ''[[Celebrity Juice]]''.

The [[CBBC]] [[game show]] ''[[Copycats]]'' featured several rounds played in a Telephone format, in which each player on a team in turn had to interpret and recreate the mimed actions, drawing or music performed by the preceding person in line, with the points value awarded based on how far down the line the correct starting prompt had travelled before mutating into something else.

A [[party game]] variant of telephone known as "wordpass" involves saying words out loud and saying a related word, until a word is repeated.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

==As a metaphor==
The game of Telephone is used in a number of fields as a metaphor for imperfect data transmission over multiple iterations.<ref name="Boeck 225">{{cite book |last1=Boeck |first1=Angelica |editor1-last=Kidenda |editor1-first=Mary Clare |editor2-last=Kriel |editor2-first=Lize |editor3-last=Wagner |editor3-first=Ernst |title=Visual Cultures of Africa |date=2022 |publisher=Waxmann |isbn=9783830945239 |page=225 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVZuEAAAQBAJ&q=%22Chinese+whispers%22&pg=PA223 |access-date=5 December 2022 |chapter=Africanisation of the European - vulnerability and de-colonisation}}</ref> For example the British zoologist [[Mark Ridley (zoologist)|Mark Ridley]] in his book ''Mendel's demon'' used the game as an analogy for the imperfect transmission of genetic information across multiple generations.<ref name="Turney 2001">{{cite news |last1=Turney |first1=Jon |title=From angelic sex to sinful genes |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/from-angelic-sex-to-sinful-genes/159583.article |access-date=5 December 2022 |work=Times Higher Education |date=1 May 2001 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205151852/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/from-angelic-sex-to-sinful-genes/159583.article |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Ridley 56">{{cite book |last1=Ridley |first1=Mark |title=Mendel's demon : gene justice and the complexity of life |date=2000 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=0297646346 |page=56 |url=https://archive.org/details/mendelsdemongene0000ridl/page/56/mode/2up?q=%22Chinese+whispers%22 |access-date=5 December 2022}}</ref> In another example, [[Richard Dawkins]] used the game as a metaphor for infidelity in [[Memetics|memetic]] replication, referring specifically to children trying to reproduce drawing of a Chinese [[Junk (ship)|junk]] in his essay ''Chinese Junk and Chinese Whispers''.<ref name="Sterelny 2004">{{cite journal |last1=Sterelny |first1=Kim |title=Never Apologize, Always Explain |journal=BioScience |date=May 2004 |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=460–462 |doi=10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0460:NAAE]2.0.CO;2 |s2cid=86360983 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Dawkins 119">{{cite book |last1=Dawkins |first1=Richard |title=A devil's chaplain : selected essays |date=2003 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=0297829734 |page=119 |url=https://archive.org/details/devilschaplainse0000dawk/page/118/mode/2up?q=%22Chinese+whispers%22 |access-date=5 December 2022}}</ref> It was used in the movie [[Tár]] to represent gossip circling within an orchestra.

==See also==
* [[Drawception]]
* [[Exquisite corpse]]
* [[Generation loss]]
* [[Mondegreen]]
* [[Pavement radio]]
* [[Snowball effect]]
* [[Round-trip translation]]
* [[Toyokawa Shinkin Bank incident]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [http://globalgossipgame.wordpress.com Global Gossip Game], a game of gossip that passes from library to library around the world on International Games Day at local libraries
* [http://www.agify.me/the-misemotions-game/ The Misemotions Game] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216164538/http://www.agify.me/the-misemotions-game/ |date=16 February 2016 }}, a variation of the telephone game where participants have to properly convey emotions instead of text messages

{{Party games}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese Whispers}}
[[Category:Party games]]
[[Category:Children's games]]
[[Category:Language games]]
[[Category:Telephony in popular culture]]
[[Category:Memory games]]
[[Category:Psychology experiments]]