What do you think causes the creation of Urban Legends?

For example, my own first foray into this Tricky sort of "Truth" was regarding the "Removed Kidney Scam".

Being a nurse, I thought that is was possible and I passed it on to one of my good friends who turned me toward the truth via "Urban Legends" website.

I felt rather foolish, but since then I try be more careful with my sources.

I think people tend to want to believe the morbid and sensational. And sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction, so it can be hard to judge what is real and what is not.

I like www.snopes2.com.

I think it is people with way too much time on their hands. Sure some of the urban legends are harmless but the chain letters some people really take to heart.

I think it is a game for some of the creators. They compete to see how far theirs will go. If it ends up in snopes then they have won.

I think the following series of quotes lists some of the reasons:

The legends also informed the listener about his or her place in the society and, subsequently, about the proper code of conduct he or she was to follow...

Our modern folklore is equally important in explaining the world around us. We name our fears by forming compelling tales out of them...

Our fear of everything that is new has inspired numerous legends. We fear or at least distrust all changes, and prefer to stick to old and proven methods. For instance, when microwave ovens were first introduced to the public, horror stories about cats or even babies accidentally put into microwave ovens were soon abound. Since we just could not instantly accept this new, revolutionary domestic appliance, we had to hear and pass on such stories to name our unconsicious [sic] fears. Similar stories involving washing machines have been popular until recent years...

An urban legend, like any good folk story, has a moral to it. An accident is not everything that is needed to create a compelling tale. The main characters of the legends usually end up getting killed, hurt or embarrassed due to their own stupidity, crookedness, or negligence...

Urban legends are the sum of all our subconsicious [sic] fears, hopes, and desires. Everything we find scary, infuriating, or desirable soon finds its way to them. We take heed of the legends and pass them on because we need other people to share these feelings with us. We need other people to laugh at them and get shocked by them just the way we did when we first heard them. We want to be assured that the people around us are thinking along the same lines as we do.

From this site.

Urban legends are the e-quivalent of The Globe, The National Enquirer, and all the other tabloid rags.
Mommy is right, we want to hear about the sensational, the morbid, the weird.
My personal favorite was on the cover of the Globe years ago:
"Baby Born With 10 Inch Ears!!!..Mom Chomped Carrots While Pregnant!!!"

quote:

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Originally posted by Cyndiluwho_99:
..."Baby Born With 10 Inch Ears!!!..Mom Chomped Carrots While Pregnant!!!"

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You mean that WASN'T true????

OMG Do I have a story for you guys!!

Somehow, unknown, I got on the mailing list for the local Bible Baptist Church, which is known for its...strange...sentiments (for example, their sign currently reads "Don't go to Heaven alone--Murder!")

Anyway, this month's newsletter happily relates a "true" story a parishoner claims to have witnessed. In this story, an atheist was dared to go to a Church yard, stick a cross in teh ground, and yell "There is no God" three tiems. He did so, stood, found himself held fast, and died of fright.

I so BADLY want to write the 'pastor' and show him this. What an idiot

The Twilight Zone did an excellent rendition of that great Urban Legend. If I recall it starred James Coburn as the foolish person who drove the stake into the grave of his enemy. That story probably predates the founding of the United States!

It probably does lol I want to write that pastor and ask him if next month's newsletter will have the story of the atheist in the microwave.