Snopes.com Founder Barbara Mikkelson on Why We Have Urban Legends

The second interview in "Architects of Tomorrow, Volume 1" is with hoaxbuster extraordinaire Barbara Mikkelson, co-founder and principal author at Snopes.com. At one point in our conversation, I asked her about the root cause behind why the Internet is so replete with tall tales.

WVW: Can you generalize about whether there is a point to urban legends? Do they serve a purpose?

Mikkelson: They are often used to give voice to any number of anxieties or concerns people have. It’s like, if you were feeling anxious about something in your world and along came this story which just perfectly illustrated exactly what you were feeling uneasy about, you would turn and share it with others because you would be able to say, “See, see. This is exactly what I was saying. This is exactly what I’ve been feeling lately.” That’s why these stories get spread as much as they do.

Another reason for them is that sometimes these stories are expressions of how we would run the world if we were in charge. In other words, that good people would be rewarded; bad people would be punished. It’s a way of expressing a sense of unease with how things happen.