NSF Research Reveals Chain Letter Travel Patterns

alphadogg writes to tell us that the NSF is researching chain letters and how they travel. The results aren't quite what one might expect, showing a pattern of more selective and circuitous travel. "One surprising finding was that messages often took meandering routes between people who knew each other, often through as many as 100 intermediaries. Many email users also received copies from multiple social groups. The researchers concluded that because messages come from many directions, there's ample opportunity for the messages to be edited along the way."

Comments

ac

[Anonymous Coward]

One surprising finding was that first posts often took meandering routes between people who knew each other

Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[GodfatherofSoul]

I'd be interested in how some of these patterns reveal themselves, especially for the Rovian whisper campaigns we see a lot of nowadays. While a liberal myself, I have a ton of conservative friends from disparate social circles who get the same types of "stupid liberals...tell your friends" chain letters that they always pass on to me lol.

The timing seems impeccable at times as well. After 9/11, they all passed on a "Palestinians did it" letter around the same time. Same with the "Obama is a Muslim" letter. Of course, geography might be an issue since they all live relatively close to me.

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[omeomi]

I have a ton of conservative friends from disparate social circles who get the same types of "stupid liberals...tell your friends"

Those are fun. I used to get those from one particular friend until I started sending point-by-point responses with links to government websites that actually gave the real facts behind the conservative hype. He stopped sending them to me. Either he got the point, or didn't want facts to get in the way of hype. I don't know which.

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[Frosty Piss]

I started sending point-by-point responses with links to government websites that actually gave the real facts.

Indeed. I get all my "real facts" from government websites...

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[NoobixCube]

Any basic, factual information can have a slight twist to its presentation. Something as simple as positioning two unrelated statistics next to each other without ever specifically linking them can tint someone's view. Or, if it's graphed, and you want to hide or exaggerate the increase in something like a crime rate, then you increase or decrease the increment on either axis. Sure, when you read it, you know what you're actually looking at, but a steep curve means more to your subconscious than any numbers ever could. I'm not attacking any specific government or agency in this. Just pointing out that facts are rarely just facts.

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[Chmcginn]

Indeed. I get all my "real facts" from government websites...

It depends what it is. If it's one of those moronic 'heh it's easy to fix the federal government by cutting x & y, and we'll have all the money we want to wage war forever' chain letters, a few links to the actual federal budget is a good STFU.

Course, if it's something more scientific in nature, you might have to go to a major research university website... Oh, wait, half of those are technically government websites, too. Hmm.

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[jd]

I'm more interested in knowing why, when they plotted the path of the chainmail it looked like suit of, well, chainmail. This is a clear indication of the fractal nature of reality, such that our terminology for spam actually infects the upper layers of reality to the point where even couch potatos are zombified into following this ancient topology.

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[value_added]

I used to get those from one particular friend until I started sending point-by-point responses with links to government websites that actually gave the real facts behind the conservative hype.

And liberal hype?

To the extent it's meaningful or productive, I could categorise myself as leaning left, but I won't. Idealogues of any type are embarrassing, even when you sympathise with some of their views.

In the past I've had a number of seemingly intelligent, well-mannered, and good-intentioned friends include me in their distribution lists, thinking I'd be receptive to their advocacy-message-of-the-day. I tolerated it with an occasional chuckle for a while until I discovered my name was being add to the distributions lists of other seemingly intelligent, well-mannered and good-intentioned people, people who were complete strangers.

The situation wasn't unlike sending a mail to subscriber-only mailing lists and have someone reply using an attribution style that includes the full name and mail address of the person they're quoting. Now the concept of the routinely putting everyone's name and email address in the body of an email may not cause any lightbulbs to turn on for the average person, but correlating having one's email address published all over the web with an increased level of SPAM, should. At least one would hope so.

To make a long story short, I did eventually (after much effort) get my name removed from all these bulk mailings, but not before I was deluged with SPAM and forced into abandoning my email account. Now I think twice before giving anyone my email address, seemingly intelligent, good-intentioned friends especially. It's a shame, really. What gets passed around by email by groups of people may not be interesting in itself, but seeing what people are doing with their spare time can be a hoot.

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[IntlHarvester]

Interestingly, the latest political chainmail tactic is to include a link to Snopes.

Snopes, of course, says just the opposite of what the letter implies, but apparently most people will take the link alone at face value

Re:Politically-motivated Chain Letters

[Crystalmonkey]

Reality has been shown to have a clear liberal bias.

Oh My Gosh!

[JayTech]

Oh my gosh! That email about an email tracker is TRUE!! Chain letters DO get tracked! And guess what? If you send this information to 10 people, you'll get a $100 GIFT CERTIFICATE!

// jokes, obviously

Re:Oh My Gosh!

[Phyrexicaid]

Hai guys! dont kno if thisll work but its worth a shot!!!

>>Oh my gosh! That email
about an email tracker is
>>TRUE!! Chain letters DO
get tracked! And guess
>>what? If you send
this information to 10 people,
>>you'll get a $100
GIFT CERTIFICATE!

Logical Conclusion:

[NoobixCube]

Some people send chain mail, others don't. Others still, don't want their friends to know they're chain mail sending idiots, thus explaining the "meandering routes".

sure.. patterns

[Anonymous Coward]

it doesn't matter what the pattern is.. they all end up in my moms mailbox

One of My Observations Is

[beadfulthings]

That for the interval covered by the (Bill) Clinton administration, my inbox was full of conservative (and Republican) generated "pass it on" emails vilifying him and anybody else connected with his administration. I probably got two or three a day. For the past eight years we've had a Republican in office, and I don't remember even a single liberal (or Democratic) generated email vilifying the Republicans. I'd almost have to say that if you observed my inbox, Republicans and conservatives love to send these out and liberals and Democrats don't.

Re:One of My Observations Is

[Anonymous Coward]

Your observations are supported by research. FactCheck.org posted commentary recently that "notes a decidedly anti-Democrat tilt to the bulk of the e-mail chatter." http://www.factcheck.org/specialreports/that_chain_e-mail_your_friend_sent_to.html