Why do some people formulate opinions on rumors without investigating?

Question

People are us, you and I, human beings, and as moral human beings why is it that some listen to gossip and engage in spredding falsehoods without investigation? Especially negative rumors. People spred the word of good cheer as well, but sometimes just as false, (hype) maybe if they were making money at it I would have a better understanding. But to me it is they want attention for some story true or false, and they become important in their mind, but are they? Or are they just doing it to bump their gums and hear themselves talk?

People's lives are at stake in some cases, and it reminds be of the whisper in Adams' ear about eating the apple, " I heard it was good and so on and so on, Where is the psychological balance? How do these things get resolved?

Answer 1

Average man judges others according to his/her own standard. It is not the right way. Lot of investigations are needed before deciding whether an act is right or wrong. Even the judiciaries world wide are not able to do that.

On the other side we all get pleasure when we speak evil about others. It is because we all are having a hidden aim to prove that others are worse than me. Most of us make use of each opportunity and in that they are not bothered to study the facts.

As individuals what we can do is Judge yourself before you judge others. I will give you an example. Few years back the construction of my house was in progress. A boy who was working their as a helper to a plumber broke one WC and a wash basin. Both these happened while trying to do his work. There is carelessness if you investigate his doings. But I started thinking about myself when I started my career some thirty years back. The mistakes I made and the way my boss treated me and so on. The result was I just went close to that boy and pacified him saying don't worry. Be little more careful in future. I know I have every right to get angry with him and cut the cost from the contractor's payment. But then, that Contractor will deduct his loss from that poor boy's wage.

Here I could not even use a harsh word towards that boy, because I tried to judge myself.

Answer 2

I will take a "wait and see" approach to replay. 1) Although I don't say "it's not possible", I do think there are situations where having replay as the solution is worse than the original problem. Let's imagine a play similar to Phil Cuzzi's blown call on Joe Mauer's fair/foul ball, but imagine the ball remains in play and there are baserunners on first and second. Mauer hits the ball down the line, all the runners take off and then the ump calls the ball 'foul'. So everyone stops. But, the manager challenges and we go to replay. Sure enough the ball was fair. So now what do we do? I can see two options - the umpires guess how the play was likely to have continued and move the runners around accordingly or there is a rule in place that says "everyone gets one base" or "everyone gets two bases". No proponent of replay has ever been able to explain to me how having umpires guess at the placement of baserunners is better than just saying "we missed that one, let's move on". Yeah, we can get the fair/foul call right but do the umpires get to say "Damon has a crap arm, the runner from first would have scored but Mauer would just be on second" or did Mauer take third on the throw home? What I've described above will also apply to any safe/out call that results in the third out being called. 2) In the above scenario, I'm sure one of the managers is going to come out and argue AFTER we've waited through the replay. So now we have replay time + argument time. 4-hour games, here we come. How about we just ban managers coming on the field to argue in the first place (i.e no replay and no arguments)? Some have suggested making calls at first base like balls & strikes - if you argue it you are tossed. I think that's a good idea. 3) I agree with you that accepting mediocrity is unacceptable. But I think there are other options. Like better training and support for umpires coupled with a greater degree of accountability. Fines for blown calls, lost playoff assignments and suspensions should all be disciplinary options for umpires who are having trouble. Having said all that, I will keep an open mind - despite my argument in #1 there are many places in the game where replay does work. If the committee can wisely choose the set of situations where replay is used, a manner of implementing replay that doesn't slow the game to a crawl (I suggest an off-field official be responsible, it makes replay faster in the NHL than the NFL); and limit the number of times it can be used in a game (one challenge per team) then perhaps there is room for limited expansion of replay. And finally, at the end of it all, it's just a game. In the grand scheme of things, what does it really matter if an ump blows a call?

Answer 3

I think deep down inside they will doubt the truthfulness as everybody knows rumors are ruomrs, but people still gossip and develop stories because that's human nature and everybody does so, it's a way to pass time and entertain themselves

Answer 4

People are all deaf mutes to some degree by letting others define them and never looking for answers themselves. Not investigating is just easier for some people. Still if one investigates too much they become deaf mutes locked in their own minds. Also if one becomes too deaf mute, it will become an investigation of deaf mutism and then no longer deaf mutism but investigation. This is progress. I know it stinks to live in a world full of deaf mutes, but without them we would have no reason to investigate. Everything is a necessary evil to keep us moving forward.

Answer 5

I have two answers:
1) Knowledge is power. Sharing 'hot' information with others is kind of like using your knowledge to get attention and to make others think you're cool and 'in the know' (god i hate that term)

2) People are brick-stupid. They will believe any lie, because they either want it to be true, or fear it to be true. Appeal to either of those reasons, and your words will spread like wildfire.

Answer 6

This is what we call the crab mentality. We dont want other people to be better than us so most people resort to criticizing others.
People who gossip alot are too insecure of what they have in life. They are never contended & they arent God fearing. They are happy having to find faults in other people. This is the reason many of our people dont achieve their goals in life.

Answer 7

Rumors warrant investigation only if truth is the priority, or atleast the expectation is contrary to the rumor.

Answer 8

You can only form an opinion on something based on what is presented to you.

Do you believe what is on the news or do you insist on seeing events for yourself before you accept them? It is impractical to investigate every peice of information that we see or hear so we are forced to accept or reject things on little information.

Answer 9

it really became a part of the culture
gossiping seems to be natural to us,human beings because we want to share information,,or i mean false information,,,for the sake of recognition,maybe...when someone tell something unproven to others..its maybe a self achievement for them for they have done something,,,without realizing that its gossiping

Answer 10

Human nature. It's the same reason shock radio and tabloids make so much money: we want to peek at other people's dirty laundry.