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OCR Page 1 of 18January 16, 1943
OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION
M-2834
MEMORANDUM ON RUMORS AND RUMOR-CONTROL GROUPS
Not for Publication
The Office of War Information has received many requests
for cooperation and information from groups which are interested in
rumor control. This memorandum is written in response to such
requests. It was prepared on the basis of an analysis of more than
4,500 rumors, a survey of rumors and their circulation, careful
analyses of enemy propaganda since Pearl Harbor, and the experience
gained in working with various rumor-control projects.
Possible Dangers in Anti-Rumor Activity
Fighting rumors is a complicated, technical task. It
raises problems in public information, military security, and
social psychology. It involves specific techniques for handling
the uneasiness and hostility which any war necessarily arouses.
Anti-rumor programs which are conducted without an aware-
ness of the possible dangers of anti-rumor activity may tend to:
a. Circulate the very rumors which are being denied.
b. Circulate more rumors than are effectively denied.
C. Make the community too "rumor conscious."
d. Create widespread uneasiness, which is fertile soil
for more rumors.
e. Exaggerate the danger of enemy propaganda--creating
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