How to Uncover an Urban Myth

Did you hear that story about your friend's sister's dog's uncle's step-mom? Or perhaps the story you heard was about a friend of a friend. While you are pretty sure your friend wouldn't make up a story about a woman giving birth to an octopus, you would like to investigate just in case. It could be an urban myth.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Internet
• Reasoning skills
• Library card

1. Determine the distance - The wider the distance between you and the people in the story, the likelier it is that you aren't hearing an accurate story. You trust your friend but your friend probably thinks that he heard a true story from someone he trusted, and the person who told it to him thought she heard a true story from HER friend. Over time, just like in a game of operator, what may have even initially been a true story gets blown up into an urban myth. If your friend says it happened to HIM, consider how much you trust your friend and make your judgment from there. If it happened to anyone else, enjoy a good story but don't repeat it unless you care to risk spreading another urban myth.

2. Use common sense - If the story sounds really crazy but is almost believable, it is probably an urban myth. This is especially true for stories that have common traits: They happened to friends of friends, they were passed on by word of mouth or through an e-mail, they often are tales that suggest you should be more cautious. A modern-day trend is for urban myth-spreading e-mails to say something along the lines of "THIS IS NOT A JOKE." One of the best indicators of an urban myth is if you hear a very similar story from two different friends.

3. Visit www.snopes.com - You can get pretty close to finding the source of a story by visiting a website like Snopes. It does all the investigating for you and has debunked (and validated) tons of urban myths, both common and obscure. For example, did you hear the story of the girl who was impregnated by sperm in a swimming pool? Snopes says it's fake. If you are also cautious about being scammed by a hoax, Snopes uncovers hoaxes as well. (See Snopes for more details.)

4. Visit the library - If you are wary of any Internet source, visit your local library and check out a book on urban myths. Surely you will run across some old familiar tales.

Tips & Warnings

• If you find out that your friend's story also happens to be an urban myth, don't blame your friend too much. Be a pal and tell him what you learned.
• Even websites like Snopes and books you can check out from the library aren't the final word on urban myths and truth. They simply conduct research and find out what LIKELY is true and isn't true. No one can know the truth completely but they can get darn close.

Resources

• About.com
• Encarta

[davida8575]

on 9/28/2009 Nice article. BTW, this morning I woke up in a tub of ice and noticed one of my Kidneys was missing! Then I built a UFO in my garage. I used the UFO to build a Crop Circle, then I went out to the farm and tipped over a few cows...........LOL.