Facts are wrong, common sense is wrong … Why do rumors in friends circle target parents？

　　□ Our reporter Liu Zhiyue "Legal System and News" Trainee reporter He Zhengxin Intern Chia Chih Li of this newspaper

　　"Less salt can sometimes be really fatal!"

　　Seeing the WeChat link sent by her mother, Xiao Chen shook his head and said helplessly, "I knew it was a rumor at first glance, but I didn’t listen to how to explain it to her!"

　　Open the link, the 4000-word article lists many so-called "scientific documents", trying to prove that "less salt is harmful to health"

　　"This article is selected by ‘ Partial facts ’ , and then carefully set up ‘ Presentation mode ’ Trying to convince readers of a conclusion that is far from the truth. " Not long after, "WeChat rumor assistant" released rumor information, confirming that the above article was a rumor.

　　Statistics show that since it was officially launched in June 2017, the number of articles rumored by "WeChat rumor assistant" has reached 1,164,200. The main target of such rumors is the parents of "Xiao Chen".

　　What are the deep-seated reasons for the spread of rumors? Why do rumors in friends circle target parents … … In order to further understand the details, the reporter of Legal Daily conducted a visit survey.

　　Wechat friends circle "poisoning"

　　Xiao Chen is a sophomore in a university in Wuhan. When it comes to his mother’s circle of friends, he is full of bitterness.

　　"My mother often forwards articles about health and food in the circle of friends, and reminds me that I must pay attention to them. These articles are unreliable by looking at the titles." Xiao Chen said.

　　Xiao Chen’s mother is 48 years old and graduated from high school. She works as a shopping guide in a supermarket. After learning to use WeChat, her circle of friends will turn to at least seven or eight "caring" articles a day.

　　Don’t eat garlic like this! Carcinogenic! Tell your family quickly. White rice — — King of junk food ""Professor of Agricultural University: There is the best vasodilator in leftovers! There is no need for additional supplements ~ "Dozens of police and thieves collusion scandal occurred in Chengdu Railway Station Police Station" … … Seeing this kind of article, Xiao Chen will patiently explain to her mother at first, and then gradually become numb and ignore it directly.

　　"This is a rumor. Can’t you see it at all?" Last month, Xiao Chen couldn’t stand it anymore and quarreled with her mother directly on the phone.

　　In this regard, Xiao Chen’s mother also feels wronged. She complained on the other end of the phone: "I think it is quite good, so I want to transfer it to you."

　　Communication was fruitless, and Xiao Chen hung up the phone directly.

　　Mom is obsessed with the rumors of WeChat friends circle, and Xiao Chen feels quite helpless. He said that when he was in high school a few years ago, his mother seldom played with her mobile phone. Every day after work, she cooked for him in a variety of ways, which was exhausting but enjoyable. After Xiao Chen went to college, her mother was alone at home, and she began to contact WeChat when she was idle.

　　Coincidentally, Mr. Deng from Huanggang City, Hubei Province is also troubled by rumors of WeChat friends circle. His "trouble" also comes from the elders at home.

　　"In order to facilitate contact, I built a WeChat group, which brought in all my relatives. At first, everyone had something to say in the group, but later it gradually became a distribution center for elders to share various rumor articles." Mr. Deng bluntly said that he directly opened the WeChat message do not disturb function.

　　However, out of respect for the elders, Mr. Deng has never publicly rumored in the WeChat group, and occasionally even replied a few words.

　　Online traffic offline "realization"

　　"Our old lady is deeply poisoned and too stubborn!" In an interview with the reporter of Legal Daily, Mr. Liu, a 33-year-old Henan citizen, said.

　　Liu is 60 years old and has a primary school education. Cooking and sending her two grandchildren to and from school are her main "jobs" every day. However, in addition to bringing a baby, Liu Mu has not only become a screen-sweeper of rumors in the WeChat circle of friends, but also upgraded to an offline active group and major consumers.

　　In addition to forwarding rumors of WeChat friends circle, Liu will also participate in offline activities organized by merchants with a group of old sisters. Every offline lecture, mother Liu must be there half an hour in advance, not only taking notes but also raising her hand to ask questions. She is very busy.

　　Last summer vacation, Liu paid attention to an unknown physical health pharmacy through the "Read the original" button at the bottom of the WeChat article, and went to the pharmacy to participate in offline activities as instructed. After the activity, mother Liu also bought back all kinds of medical equipment that claimed to cure all diseases, and it didn’t take a few days to become a pile of waste.　

　　There are not a few cases like Liu Mu.

　　In Mr. Liu’s view, the root cause of the proliferation of rumors in WeChat friends circle lies in the profit-seeking nature of merchants. It is not "good intentions" to create these rumors, but to touch people’s nerves to attract attention, and then realize the realization of traffic.

　　The reporter found out that online rumors such as health and wellness, food safety, anecdotes and hot events are the key targets of parents’ attention. The materials of such rumors are closely related to people’s lives, and manufacturers have dubbed them sensational titles, which often make people "have to open them". Most rumors from parents’ WeChat friends circle have the following characteristics:

　　The first is mandatory attention and forwarding. At the end of the article, a QR code will be attached, and guidance words such as "spread and forward quickly, let relatives and friends know the truth" will be added to guide parents to pay attention and forward them in large quantities.

　　The second is to import third-party platforms. Under most articles, there will be a "read the original" button to import the third-party platform, which will guide people to other platforms to add attention.

　　Third, traffic owners and advertisers are profitable. Relying on the high number of fans accumulated by rumors to absorb advertisements, and earn clicks or advertisers’ copywriting profits through advertisements.

　　The fourth is to guide the purchase of physical objects. At the end of many rumor articles, promotional pictures and purchase links of health food and medicine or health micro-courses will be attached, and people will be tempted to buy them by forwarding discounts or issuing red envelopes.

　　For the rumors forwarded by parents’ WeChat friends circle, children often have two more extreme tendencies. Some children will try to explain to their parents at first, but if they can’t explain it, it will turn into a quarrel, which will widen the gap between the two sides. As a result, "children don’t want to see it, but parents don’t want to listen"; In order not to make the elderly sad, more children turn a blind eye, as long as it does not involve serious issues such as life and property safety, let the elderly forward publicity.

　　Metaphor behind rumors

　　In the face of repeated official rumors, rumors from parents’ WeChat circle of friends do not seem to be decreasing, but are getting worse.

　　Why does the rumor article composed of "an unreliable conclusion+a seemingly scientific basis" attract so many people to forward it in the WeChat circle of friends? Why do parents become the "main force" of forwarding? Behind the rumor content, there are actually many metaphors.

　　The reporter randomly selected an article from the WeChat circle of friends entitled "Don’t buy this dish again! Because it is 100% carcinogenic, it was verified that this article was officially recognized as a rumor as early as 2014. In the past four years, this rumor has been pushed and spread by many WeChat official account.

　　"There have been rumors in the rivers and lakes that people who eat bracken are prone to stomach cancer, esophageal cancer and intestinal cancer. After a series of experiments, we have obtained very authoritative data: bracken does cause cancer and is highly carcinogenic! " At the beginning of the above article, the conclusion was drawn in an authoritative tone.

　　However, after reading the full text carefully, the reporter found that this article did not mention the experimental process and the experimental organizer from beginning to end, nor did it indicate the source.

　　"The article aims at the health problems that people are very concerned about." In Mr. Deng’s view, rumor makers have taken advantage of people’s panic psychology and created a sense of terror through concrete sensible data and seemingly objective and authoritative experiments, which makes people have to pay attention. At its root, such rumors actually take advantage of parents’ concern for their children.

　　At present, the aging trend of the social population is becoming more and more obvious. Due to work and other reasons, parents and children often live apart, and "online" communication has become an important channel for many parents and children to communicate. Lack of emotional sustenance is also the main reason why many parents’ circle of friends is "poisoned".

　　Li Bin (pseudonym), a college student from Wuhan, thinks that the older people get, the more afraid they are of getting old and getting sick, even those who have received higher education. The makers of WeChat rumors have grasped this psychology and used words such as "death" and "cancer" to stimulate parents’ vision and make them feel fear.

　　"They also forward these links out of concern for their children. As long as they don’t involve issues of principle, they should put themselves in other’s shoes and understand their parents better." Li Bin said.

　　According to Lei Wuming, director of the Institute of Mental Health and Career Development Education of Wuhan University of Technology, the causes of rumors in WeChat friends circle are different according to age and occupation, and need to be comprehensively considered from the social level.

　　"On the whole, there are six main reasons for rumors: lack of scientific thinking, conformity psychology, kidnapping psychology, lack of security, overconfidence and excessive kindness." Lei Wuming said that eradicating rumors requires the comprehensive efforts of education, management and the rule of law.

　　Lei Wuming pointed out that most rumors in the circle of friends are factual errors, common sense errors and methodological errors, and most people can distinguish them by scientific common sense, while middle-aged and elderly people who lack scientific thinking are easily deceived.

　　At the same time, parents often follow the crowd to forward rumor articles in the WeChat circle of friends, often out of the herd mentality of following relatives and friends. Some elderly people will also forward rumors to their circle of friends based on their sympathy for social phenomena or religious beliefs.

　　In addition, many middle-aged and elderly people lack a sense of security in their lives, and rumor articles often use the form of "what will happen if they don’t forward" to kidnap them emotionally and force them to forward them. Some middle-aged and elderly people over-identify with their self-abilities, and feel that "I know my profession" has fallen into the trap of forwarding.

　　Cure rumors

　　Need multiple efforts

　　Lei Wuming bluntly said that the Internet platform, as the gatekeeper of information, has an unshirkable responsibility in the generation and dissemination of rumors, but there are a series of problems in reality. On the one hand, in terms of screening and controlling rumors, whether the Internet platform should bear the responsibility and what kind of responsibility it should bear are not clearly defined in our laws; On the other hand, after the spread of the Internet platform, it is difficult to clearly investigate the person responsible for the rumor.

　　"Rumors stop at the truth, and timely release of rumor information is an effective way to curb rumors. Relevant departments should organize scientific courses to let the masses master more scientific common sense and gradually improve their discernment. " Lei Wuming suggested.

　　In an interview with reporters, Pan Aixian, an associate professor at the School of Law of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, pointed out that the definition of rumors in WeChat friends circle is a very important aspect. First of all, it is necessary to distinguish whether spreading such information is a misunderstanding of common sense of life or a deliberate fabrication of rumors for profit.

　　Pan Aixian said that the accountability of rumors and communicators should be strengthened. Those who violate national laws and regulations but do not constitute a crime shall be investigated for administrative responsibility according to law; If spreading rumors violates the criminal law and constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law.

　　"To further unblock the information channels and face the hot issues of social hot events, relevant departments should release authoritative information at the first time to let people know the cause and effect of the incident, so as to eradicate the breeding ground of rumors in WeChat friends circle from the source." Pan Aixian suggested.

　　In addition, Pan Aixian believes that to avoid the rumors of parents’ WeChat friends circle from the root, it is necessary for families and society to work together to strengthen the rule of law propaganda for middle-aged and elderly people in a targeted manner, so that they can know the law and learn to distinguish rumors.