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of this report but I will not be alarmed”). coping (Walker & Blaine, 1991).
To bring this Christian psychology of rumor Rumors have been linked to psychological stress
and stress into sharper relief, I next describe and strain in a couple of ways. First, rumors of
modern psychological conceptualizations of ru- potential threat may lead to stress. For examp-
mor and stress. Modern psychology conceives le, systematic categorization of rumors circu-
of rumors as part of adaptive collective threat lating among hospital employees undergoing
appraisal, and stress as part of adaptive indivi- major changes (e.g., in infrastructure, staffing,
dual threat appraisal. management, technology) were predominant-
ly negative; hearing these negative, vs. hearing
Collective and Individual Threat Detection positive, rumor predicted change-related stress
Modern psychology understands rumor as (Bordia, Jones, Gallois, Callan, & Difonzo,
unsubstantiated information that circulates 2006). In addition, stress may lead to rumor
in service of collective attempts to adaptively discussion. In a meta-analysis of research on
cope with uncertainty and deal with perceived antecedents of rumor transmission, anxiety and
risk (Bordia, DiFonzo, & Chang, 1999). When uncertainty—both of which are psychological
a community faces the perplexing event (e.g., states closely linked to stress—most strongly
how could our president be assassinated by a predicted rumor transmission (Rosnow, 1991).
lone gunman?) people discuss rumors to make Modern psychology’s contention that rumors of
sense of the matter. Making sense (i.e., under- threat (i.e., fear rumors) are stressful is not sur-
standing) is seen as evolutionarily adaptive prising, because modern psychology concep-
(Fiske, 2018). When communities face a poten- tualizes stress as an adaptive response to threat
tially threat (e.g., the exponential spread of the at the level of the individual. Modern psycho-
coronavirus, (J. Cohen, Feb. 19, 2020), people logy understands stress primarily using meta-
share rumors to prepare against danger; this, phors from material and machine mechanics.
of course, is also adaptive. When reliable news Materials (e.g., steel) are stressed when force is
is absent, perceived as partisan, or inconsistent applied to them; too much force and the mate-
(e.g., when newspapers are state-controlled; rial deforms or fails. A related concept, strain,
Bauer & Gleicher, 1953), people improvise is the relative degree of deformation in the
news; this is rumor (Shibutani, 1966). Conside- stressed material. Machines are also stressed
red this way, rumors function as a way that a when they cannot perform as designed because
group makes sense of the unexplained, and de- of excessive work demands (e.g., engines can-
tect and deal with threat. not achieve their rated rotation speeds when
Threats may be tangible, as when lives, liveli- moving excessive loads). Using the materialist
hoods, health, or safety are endangered. Rumors mechanics frame combined with naturalistic
abound in the midst of natural disasters (Prasad, evolutionary adaptation, psychological stress
1935), organizational changes affecting job se- “occurs when an individual perceives that en-
curity (DiFonzo, Bordia, & Rosnow, 1994), and vironmental demands tax or exceed his or her
when children become autistic for no apparent adaptive capacity.” (S. Cohen, Janicki-Deverts,
reason (Jolley & Douglas, 2014). Threats may & Miller, 2007, p. 1685).
also be intangible, as when a rumor threatens The experience of stress happens when over-
a deeply cherished value (Federico, Williams, & load occurs in response to threat, presumably
Vitriol, 2018), or when one’s social group is de- because all of an organism’s resources must be
rogated (DiFonzo et al., 2014). Rumors in cases marshalled for action. Psychological stress then
involving threat afford coping functions. When arises when an experience is appraised as th-
rumors help groups make sense of and prepare reatening (Gianaros & Wager, 2015). The system
for a threat, they fulfill a problem-focused co- is (or at least, was) adaptive; these mechanisms
ping (Bordia & DiFonzo, 2005). When rumors are thought to have naturalistically evolved as a
simply help groups to understand an unavoi- way for organisms to respond more effectively
dable threat, they afford an emotion-focused to predation or natural disaster (Segerstrom &

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