A person is in a movie theater when they feel a prick on their arm, they turn around and find a note telling them they've just been infected with the HIV virus and the note says, "Welcome to my world."
Is this poor person the victim of a crazed psychopath or an urban legend?
Jenny Havron, a graduate student, heard about the family who took their pet poodle out to eat with them in Singapore. They asked the waiter to take the dog back to the kitchen for a bite to eat. The kitchen cooked the dog and they brought it out on a platter to the horrified family because they thought the family wanted it cooked.
Business travelers beware! An e-mail is making its way around corporate America warning its executives to be careful because hapless business men and women are waking up in their hotel bathtubs, after having been drugged, packed in ice with a note telling them to call 911 because their kidneys have been harvested.
There are many books and websites devoted to urban legends and debunking them. Jan Harold Brunvand, who has written several books on urban legends, said legends are stories built out of details that have been blown out of proportion.
Dr. Bill Dwyer, professor of psychology at The University of Memphis, said urban legends are told to create attention.
"People create lies because it serves a purpose at the time," Dwyer said.
Dwyer said myths begin as a factoid to serve someone's purpose. He said many of urban legends are of a political nature, which are designed to get people behind a cause or a political leader.
"People act like sheep," Dwyer said. "Leaders try to set up beliefs because people will come together."
One example of the public being duped by an urban legend was when the manufacturers of the soft drink Snapple were accused of being racist. The owners, who are Jewish, follow the strict dietary laws of the Jewish religion. The symbol denoting that the product is kosher is a small "k" enclosed by a circle and is stamped on each bottle. The story grew a life of its own after reports circulated that the stamp was actually a symbol for the Ku Klux Klan, causing an uproar in the African-American community. The news media began covering the story, getting peoples' upset reactions to Snapple. Eventually the story died down after the makers of Snapple waged a public relations campaign explaining what the symbol really meant.
Dwyer said one of the most famous urban legends is about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree and telling his father he did it because he could not tell a lie.
"It's absolutely not true," Dwyer said.
He explained the story was started by a biographer of George Washington and eventually took on a life of its own.
"Then there are the geeks who try to start something to see how far it gets," Dwyer said of the people who start urban legends and e-mail viruses.
Redmond Lucas Wells, who researches urban legends and has a website devoted to the subject, said people who believe urban legends do so because they help to substantiate their personal view of the world. He also said someone who believes their rights are being threatened by the government is more susceptible to conspiracy theories than others who are not concerned.
Wells also said people believe what they hear when the person they hear it from is a credible source. He said it is especially hard to convince people a story is not entirely true when they think the story came from a newspaper or a television source.
Dwyer said passing on urban legends makes people feel important and gives them a sense of accomplishment.
"It's very reinforcing to be a purveyor of knowledge."
