Rumor MillRumor MillThis model represents the spread of a rumor in a small town. When a rumor is started, it is assumed that everyone is gullible enough to believe it. Gullible people who hear the rumor begin to spread it in turn, but only up to a point. Eventually, they come to their senses and are no longer susceptible to that rumor.
The elements of this model are the three populations – Gullibles, Rumor Mongerers, and Loyalists. These populations interact much like susceptible, sick, and healthy people in a disease model. Rumor mongerers can “infect” gullibles with the rumor, turning them into rumor mongerers, but they can also eventually recover and turn into loyalists.
Once you set the constants to your liking, simply run the model and see how it is displayed in the graph on the right.
Initially, there will be 1 rumor mongerer and everyone else will be gullible. As time goes by, the number of mongerers will increase, peak, and then slowly decrease once most everyone has heard the rumor. These mongerers will then turn into loyalists and no longer be susceptible.