Customer Reviews

The Watercooler Effect: A Psychologist Explores the Extraordinary Power of Rumors

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DiFonzo takes the reader on a journey through historic account of rumor driven events that tested an age old method of transferring information among social groups. Truth, we learn is unmasked as events and information are sifted and compared and sense can be made.
The Watercooler Effect: An Indispensable Guide to Understanding and Harnessing the Power of Rumors

Nicholas Di Fonzo's The Watercooler Effect, while not my usual fare, turned out to be quite interesting. It is a thorough study of rumors, complete with the results of research that has gone into people's fondness for rumor and its continued preponderance.

I was particularly fascinated with the clear differentiation between what is rumor and what is merely gossip, and the different ways in which the two are disseminated.

Prior to reading this book, I had never considered that rumors could have real value. They help to explain the unexplainable, they provide sources of information in situations of fear and they can be used to pass on information which people should have, but which can't be seen to come from a particular source. The concept of rumor management also had me thinking.

Why people continue to pass on rumors without checking on the background facts (especially now with the proliferation of the Internet) is something I still don't understand. I did appreciate the sources given for fact-checking of the rumors and urban legends that come our way every day via our email.

The examples provided throughout the book, along with the results of the studies done went a long way toward helping me understand the concepts involved. I would have preferred some more detail and cohesion to the examples however. They sometimes felt a little disjointed and truncated.

Far from a dry, boring report however, this book was wonderfully readable and very interesting and I think that anyone who wants a layman's understanding about how rumors and gossip drive our daily interactions would enjoy reading it.

The Watercooler Effect is a very timely piece of work. It is, after all, election season. My inbox has been overflowing with forwarded bits of political "information," most of it nonsense. I'd always believed this was primarily designed to sway my vote one way or another, but it turns out there may be other forces at work.

I was most interested in this book because of my interest in political rumors, and it is interesting to consider them in the light of some of the information presented here. For example, people spread political gossip not just to sway your vote, but also to reinforce their own status within the group; according to DiFonzo, "people are are not always primarily interested in the truth when they speak together, but rather to find ways to affiliate and bond with one another."

Another interesting issue is that of fact-checking. I have often wondered why people who forward those viral emails don't take a minute or two to check their facts. After all, who wants to look foolish, forwarding a hoax? Apparently, that is part of the answer: people don't check their facts because they don't want to embarass the person who sent them the rumor. (That has never stopped me, for the record. I am in favor of embarassing mass-forwarders whenever I can.) No excuse, in my opinion, for some of the dreck that gets passed around.

Generally speaking, this is an interesting and timely book, but you won't find any startling revelations here. There are some interesting anecdotes and a lot of common sense information, including some techniques for managing the rumor mill that might be useful for those readers forced to deal with office politics.

The Watercooler Effect was surprising to me as I thought it would be a dull, scientific stuffy type read and that isn't my kind of reading. However, Nicholas DiFonzo kept my attention with his smart and clever examples and explanations. In fact, the lack of too much boring research surprised me.
After studying why we spread rumors, DiFonzo also discussed why we believe in them and what rumors do to each of us. We all know how we are taught in school that rumors can spread and change with each telling and this book looks into how rumors can affect our lives and how we act.
DiFonzo studied rumors for more than 15 years and explains the process of how rumors basically get started mostly around areas such as the coffee pot or watercooler at work. Probably more interesting is what he found out about why we spread rumors. Using some humor, the author tells a lot about the person who is spreading them. He found that when people are in an uncomfortable situation, they like to talk to one another to get some relief and thus the rumors are born. DiFonzo analyzed some specialized rumors that play even bigger roles in our lives. Those included ones made in the military and government situations. Thank goodness he found that most military rumors tend to be true while most often political rumors do not. In this highly active political year, I bet we would all agree with that!
The book was an interesting "one of a kind read" and although not my normal kind of book choice, I found it interesting and very clever. It is good to know and be reminded, however, that rumors can hurt people and that most people take them, sadly, at face value.
Submitted by Karen Haney, September, 2008

In "The Watercooler Effect" Nicholas DiFonzo sets out to explain why rumors happen, why people believe them, and how they can be managed. To do this, DiFonzo uses several examples of real life rumors and academic studies to explore the world of rumor.

This book was a quick and engaging read. Despite subject matter that could have been very dry, DiFonzo keeps the pace brisk and his tone light. My one quibble was that the brisk pace creates a lack of in-depth substance to the book. I felt it was more of an overview then a detailed look. That said, I would definitely recommend this to professors teaching intro level courses in communication, especially organizational or interpersonal communication.

What makes a rumor?

That is the question.

We all know what a rumor is. It can be described as "an unverified account or explanation of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in public concern". In The Watercooler Effect, Nicholas DiFonzo explores as well as explains why we as a society latch onto rumors in addition to how they get started. DiFonzo provides the reader examples of some very popular rumors and myths.

He explains that some times a rumor can get started just by someone providing minimum information or the listener mixing up some information. Think of it like the game "telephone". The more people who pass on the information, the less the end result turns out to be from the beginning. So why do we spread rumors or even claim a hint of legitimacy to these facts if all rumors are just that.....rumors. It's because it's one way we communicate. One of the biggest reasons we pay any attention to hearsay is fear. You say well that is stupid. There is no truth to rumors, so why would I fear them. It's for the simple fact that when we hear something that could jeopardize our jobs or maybe it's because we are just trying to make sense of all the situations happening around the world; whatever the case may be, we are wanting to reveal the certainty that circumstances surrounding us are going to be ok.

I didn't know quite what to expect when I started reading The Watercooler Effect. I knew though that the subject that was going to be discussed within this book was going to be interesting. Well it definitely was. Nicholas DiFonzo explanations were enlightening even though I wish there had been more examples I was still pleased with this novel. It made me think more about what's in a rumor as well as trying not to help spread the rumor mill right away. The Watercooler Effect is one of those novels everyone should read at least one.

The Watercooler Effect explores the idea of rumors from multiple angles. I'm sure we have all had some sort of experience with rumors but it's really nice to see the idea of a rumor laid out in front of you. I've never thought about rumors in such detail but really enjoyed this exploration.

We learn about how and why rumors start. The difference between rumor, gossip, and urban legends. The personal gain of passing on a rumor in your social circle and how rumors can be successfully snuffed out among other things.

Some of his examples of rumors I had never heard about and others I had. I really enjoyed reading the urban legend section. He talks about how people rather believe something even if it may not true than risk the consequences if they do happen to be true. I very easily identified with this. What parent wouldn't rather keep their child home from school for one day then risk the rumor of a child bring a gun to school being true.

Reading the study results was also interesting. I'm not sure exactly how it would have worked but some nice graphics of some of the different concepts would have helped me retain the information even better.

I liked the use of examples in this book, they help me remember information better then just plain facts. I was expecting them to be more flushed out, longer examples like those in The Tipping Point, Blink and Freakonomics. I like how those books frame the information inside an example more so then use smaller examples to illustrate the information within the text.

I think fans of Malcom Galdwell's work and Freakonomics would enjoy this book.

First, although written by a university psychologist, this is definitely a pop-oriented book more than an academic one. Oh, there's a fair amount of social research, but no real cognitive research.

Distinguishing types of rumors by cause and intent was good, and new. The advice part of the book, about how organizations and bosses can either be more proactive at preventing rumors from starting, or offer an open culture to question rumors as they spread, was also good.

Other that, this book is on the lighter side of reading in general. And, it doesn't have much of a focus beyond the pop level.

This disappointing book on the subject of rumors is a bland academic overview of a subject that the psychology professor author doesn't define clearly and doesn't even seem to understand well. Throughout the book he uses terms like hearsay, hoax, urban legend, gossip and rumor, never really defining clearly what he is talking about.

He cites a few small classroom studies that he has conducted, none of which can draw any real conclusions other than what his small group of students think. He raises a few famous rumors (most often the Proctor and Gamble devil rumor), but completely skips some of the biggest (such as the atheists' FCC petition, which caused government chaos for decades). Then he uses the example of Obama's response of being accused of being Muslim as a good way to refute rumors. One problem--there is a school document from Obama's childhood that lists his religion as Muslim. That fact is not dealt with in the discussion, which shows the type of incomplete analysis this book is regarding rumors.

He also doesn't really discuss a "watercooler effect," which he admits is a bit different from rumors. He just needed a catchy title for the book. It's too bad because this could have been an analysis of how people take topics in the news and popular culture, discuss it the next day at work, or go online to message boards. Instead the Internet and pop culture are barely mentioned here.

It's pretty much a waste of time. This may have made an interesting magazine article, but doesn't deserve 225 pages, plus another 50 pages of citations!