Flexible Reality: A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community

Internet Hoaxes, Chain Letters, et al

Note: Over the past few years we have all received numerous emails which consisted of some hoax, whether it was the "Nigerian Oil", "Madlyn Murray O'hair vs FCC", "Poor Girl Cancer Victim" or other warning or appeal that the sender forwarded to our email box, many times with the name or email address of a friend attached.

For a fuller introduction to the range of these emails, we have the CAIC webpage that speaks to the matter in plain language.

However, my take on this has more to do with several factors only marginally addressed in that article, which I refer to as the "Hook, Line, and Sinker" email messaging system. First, is the "hook" where the email author makes a statement that the reader responds to; usually about the primacy of Christian based activities such as prayer in the school, religious programming, or indecency on the airwaves. Lately we have seen this include an opposition to "partial birth abortions", "gay marriage", and other controversial social issues.

The "line" attempts to suggest a fault with current activities, address a perceived need, cast blame on some entity, or in some other manner substantiate the thesis of the "hook".

The "sinker" is the appeal, where the chain letter or hoax email recipient is encouraged to add their name to a list to be forwarded to someone, who it is suggested, can provide a solution, or to forward the original message to their email buddies for their edification and combined action.

It seems these emails depend on two related phenomenon: a) the veracity of the "hook" requires a Judeo-Christian religious bias, and b) the recipient is expected to acknowledge a responsibility to address this matter in an evangelical manner. Whereas the "line" almost always includes an appeal to authority, narrowly selected.

But what is most striking is the "sinker" component. It is almost impossible to believe that anyone in a position of power would grant favored status to an email with 10,000 signatures attached over one with 10 signatures. A legally valid petition requires a confirmable signature which is not provided by affixing one's name to an email list of names. Any moderately skilled spammer can spit out a list of a million names with mostly matching email addresses in short order. Any auditor attempting to verify signatures on an email chain letter would throw in the towel long before getting to Signature # 100.

On the other hand, when ten thousand people send a personal letter or non-templated email to a legislator the import will be several orders of magnitude greater than an email containing ten thousand signatures. That should be obvious; but perhaps something else explains the "pile-on" chain letter phenomenon. Two likely explanations might very simply be standard features of group dynamics, such as: affixing a signature indicates an acceptance of the "hook, line, and sinker", or an acknowledgement that their individual voice carries little weight unless used in combination with other voices, or is an attempt to indicate support in the least threatening manner possible.

The Website: chainletters.net, lists 1,148 chain letters in current circulation. By topic they include: 141 dealing with money, 111 dealing with sex, 84 dealing with church or prayer, 15 dealing with President Bush, and 2 dealing with tolerance. Not exactly the distribution one would expect, or perhaps it is exactly what one would expect.