In Reply to: not a myth posted by Chris on Thursday, 7. June 2007 at 10:02 Bali Time:
these things and care about the outcome then they why tell some people and not others? Why not tell someone who can do something about it?
a cut and paste from http://www.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend2.htm
snip<
But why does an audience take this at face value, instead of recognizing it is a tall tale or unsubstantiated rumor? In most cases, it has to do with how the story is told. If a friend (let's call her Jane) tells you an urban legend, chances are she will say it happened to a friend of somebody she knows. You trust Jane to tell you the truth, and you know she trusts the person who told her the story. It seems pretty close to secondhand information, so you treat it as such. Why would Jane lie?
Of course, Jane isn't really lying, and her friend wasn't lying to her -- both of them believe the story. They are, however, probably abbreviating the story somewhat, and you will probably abbreviate it yourself when you pass it on. In this situation, the story happened to a friend of one of your friend's friends, but to simplify things, you'll probably just say it happened to a friend of Jane's, or even to Jane herself. In this way, every person who relays the story gives the impression that he or she is only two people away from one of the characters in the story, when in reality, there are probably hundreds of people between them.> snip