When researchers model the way gossip spreads, they can use the same distributed algorithms that model the propagation of infectious disease. Patient Zero for a true gossip story, in my experience, is almost always the subject or someone close to them. For a lie, though, the source could be anyone. With gossip it is less important to me that I know exactly who began a story and how it started than that I understand how many degrees of separation exist between me and the person who experienced it. The more bodies between me and Patient Zero, the less I trust the information I’m being given.
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