ABSTRACT
When one speak to someone, that someone is not chosen at random. Every rumor has its particular public. But the term "public" should not make us forget that each individual plays a precise role in a rumor's circulation. This chapter examines the parts played by each of a rumor's actors. Every rumor has a market of its own. The fact that every rumor has its own public can be rather surprising at times. But experience does not work uniquely against rumors. The effect of experience explains why, in countries where a form of censorship exists, the intelligentsia attributes a great deal of credibility to rumors. In addition to the grand sociological, political, and sociocultural splits that trace out a rumor's potential empire, individual psychology can accentuate sensitivity to rumors. Having studied a rumor about white slave trading, for example, Paillard observed that the women the most anxious about the rumor were "rather old and ugly".
