Rumor And Panic During The SARS Crisis

The plague of SARS was over in china in 2003. The overflow of rumor was a unique phenomenon during the SARS crisis. Tales and rumors will not only harm individual physically and psychologically,also have siginificant negative impact upon social and economic development.It is an important part of social management to effectively control the spread and its negative impact of rumors.This paper described and analyzed the situation, origin,spread and effect of the rumor in the city and countryside from social psychology approach. We find the classical theory about rumor ' s spread is only applied to explain the rumor in the countryside. So the classical theory need revised.Indeed,the rumor's influence on the society is great and profound.The crisis especially challenges today's public risk management, social civilization and progress. During the discussion on the rumor in SARS,we have concluded some valuable suggestions in dealing with such a social crisis. On one hand,it requires reform of government's social management mechanism,and on the other hand ,we should study the psychological change of social member in the event of emergency cases,research rumors spread and control,reduce social conditions to breed rumors and improve social member's anti-jamming capacity.