www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

Rumors spread panic for a reason

By Patrick Mattimore (China Daily) Updated: 2014-03-21 08:00

Rumors of stabbings in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, led to panic among residents last week, a day after a knife fight between food vendors in Changsha, Hunan province, left six people dead. On March 14, hours after the Changsha violence, dozens of shoppers at a busy mall in Chengdu fled in panic because of rumors that some people had gone on a stabbing spree. Seemingly, people were on the edge after the knife attack at Kunming, Yunnan province, in which 29 people were killed and 140 injured two weeks ago.

A good example of how we can be fooled into collective delusion by rumors is the case of the Seattle "windshield-pitting epidemic". In 1954, car owners north of Seattle, Washington state, began to notice pits on their windshields, leading them to believe that a common causative agent was at work. Residents and the press began to attribute the pitting to everything from sand flea eggs to nuclear bomb testing. Police initially believed they were the handiwork of vandals using BB guns. But since the phenomenon was observed even in nearby towns and eventually metropolitan Seattle, more and more reports were phoned in and newspapers began to feature the story.

Several theories for the widespread damage were postulated, including the fact that a new Navy radio transmitter was producing waves that caused the windshields to shake. The speculations included cosmic rays, a shift in the earth's magnetic field and supernatural gremlins. But after Sergeant Max Allison of the Seattle police crime laboratory said the pitting reports consisted of "5 percent hooliganism, and 95 percent public hysteria", the phenomenon suddenly stopped.

A subsequent investigation determined that the pits had always existed and were the result of mundane events such as ordinary road wear, but had gone unnoticed. In the wake of rumors, spurred by a few initial cases amplified by the media, residents began looking at, instead of through, their windshields, and saw damage they had never noticed before.

But the appeal of such fairy tales is that they tell stories the public is primed to hear and fear. The 1954 incident came at a time of widespread American anxiety about nuclear testing, global change and Soviet plots.

According to psychologist David Myers, we irrationally fear things that claim lives in bunches. Smoking kills 1,200,000 Chinese each year, and carbon dioxide looks to be the biggest weapon of mass destruction, but terror attacks frighten us more.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

Most Viewed Today's Top News
New type of urbanization is in the details
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 欧美影院久久 | 国产精品青草久久福利不卡 | 蜜桃日本一道无卡不码高清 | 91免费高清视频 | 国产精品亚洲欧美一级久久精品 | 91久久精品国产91性色tv | 美女视频黄a视频美女大全 美女视频黄a视频免费全程 | 亚洲国产成人在线视频 | 欧美日韩一区二区三区免费不卡 | 成人精品第一区二区三区 | 97在线看 | 日韩一区国产二区欧美三区 | 久久91亚洲精品中文字幕 | 欧美在线一二三区 | 成人a免费α片在线视频网站 | 全国男人的天堂网 | 成人黄色免费网址 | 国产成人v视频在线观看 | 国产99视频精品免费观看9e | 国产在线观看精品一区二区三区91 | a级在线观看视频 | 在线亚洲综合 | 黄色三级理沦片 | 日韩美女一级视频 | 日本加勒比在线 | 毛片视频网站在线观看 | 欧美激情一区二区三区高清视频 | 亚洲国产观看 | 亚洲精品自产拍在线观看 | 国产精品区在线12p 国产精品人成 | 国产在线观看精品一区二区三区91 | 99久久精品免费观看国产 | 国产精品久久久久久久hd | 在线视频日韩精品 | 国产四区 | 日韩美女爱爱 | 亚洲黄色性视频 | 国产在线视频精品视频免费看 | 国产韩国精品一区二区三区久久 | 国产视频亚洲 | 成人a毛片高清视频 |