Who doesn’t love a good urban legend? They tend to be lighthearted mysteries that many of us have heard of, but are often more mainstream and relatable than hardcore political conspiracy theories. Sometimes they involve a story heard from a friend of a friend of someone who was involved, but they nearly always reference something that you vaguely remember hearing in the news and that has the air of plausibility—something that could happen to you. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re weird, sometimes they’re scary.
It’s the familiarity that is key to urban legends’ tendency to spread. We’re all much more likely to pass on a story we’ve heard if the person it happened to was a friend of a friend, or if it happened nearby, or if it involved a service we all use or something we’re all familiar with. Urban legends spread virally nowadays, because nothing travels faster on the Internet than a cool story.
Is that arcade game you’ve always played really a way for the government to spy on you? Is it possible that Finland isn’t a real place? Was TWA Flight 800 shot down by the United States? Urban legends—believe them or not—will always at least get your attention.