Warning #1
While driving on a rural end of the roadway on Thursday morning, I saw an infant car seat on the side of the road with a blanket draped over it. For whatever reason, I did not stop, even though I had all kinds of thoughts running through my head. But when I got to my destination, I called the Canton PD and they were going to check it out.
But, this is what the Police advised even before they went out there to check.... "There are several things to be aware of .... gangs and thieves are now plotting different ways to get a person (mostly women) to stop their vehicle and get out of the car.
"There is a gang initiation reported by the local Police Department where gangs are placing a car seat by the road...with a fake baby in it...waiting for a woman, of course, to stop and check on the abandoned baby.
"Note that the location of this car seat is usually beside a wooded or grassy (field) area and the person -- woman -- will be dragged into the woods, beaten and raped, and usually left for dead. If it's a man, they're usually beaten and robbed and maybe left for dead, too.
Do not stop for any reason!!! Dial 9-1-1 and report what you saw, but don't even slow down.
Warning #2
If you are driving at night and eggs are thrown at your windshield, do not stop to check the car, do not operate the wiper and do not spray any water because eggs mixed with water become milky and block your vision up to 92.5%, and you are then forced to stop beside the road and become a victim of these criminals.
This is a new technique used by gangs, so please inform your friends and relatives. These are desperate times and these are unsavory individuals who will take desperate measures to get what they want.
Please talk to your loved ones about this. This is a new tactic used. Please be safe.
- Can you pick out the SUCCESs elements in these examples?
- Does their "stickiness" incline you to a particular behavior? Is there something you will or won't do as a result?
- Do you know anyone to whom either of these things has happened?
- Is it possible that a professor like me assigned students like you the task of writing an "urban legend" and sending it to their distribution list?
They are Simple in their use of fear yet Unexpected in their simplicity. I am not sure they are concrete or credible. However they are Emotional (fear, worry, etc) in the response they incite. They are stories which I beleive make them more likely to last and be spread to the masses and thus become Urban Legends.
ReplyDeletePs. Never stop to investigate as no good deed will go unpunished. Sad times but you are better safe than sorry?
My father sends me stuff like this all the time. They are credible because you can relate it to car-jackings at traffic lights have occured. Of course by the time the police find you all beaten and dead in the woods, the infant seat is long gone, the car jackers are long gone and there is never any proof as to why you were stopped in the area in the first place. Hence, the fear of the unknown.
ReplyDeletetrue story - the Massachusetts Environmental Police, in their effort to apprehend evil dirtbike riders who are riding illegally in an area will lay a quad on its side and appear to be helping an injured rider. If you stop, you'll be asked for registration, will have your dirtbike towed along with receiving a hefty fine. ...Our tax dollars well spent.
#2 is effective at tugging at my emotions. If I drove past a baby car seat on the side of the road that picture would "stick" in my mind for a few days. It is a credable story because you hear of people finding abandoned babies frequently these days. Today, I would not stop, but I would call the police..and follow up with what they found.
ReplyDeleteI think warning #1 is sticky for various reasons. It is unexpected, the image of the blanket covered carseat touches one's emotions, and the warning is in the form of a story. On a personal level, if the car seat was positioned in such a manner that it appeared there was a baby in it, I would probably stop. However, because this warning was so sticky, I think if I ever drove past a carseat now, I would remember this warning and would simply call the police.
ReplyDeleteI actually did not think that Warning #2 was very sticky at all. The opening sentence is more or less a run on sentence and I think it easily loses the reader's attention. Also, the fact that the first sentence has an actual percentage that vision will be blocked, makes it less sticky, because a statistic like this is not going to keep the reader's attention. In addition, the warning is about what can happen to you after you pull over to check your car or clean your windshield, but it barely even mentions that. For this message to be sticky, it would have to inspire fear or other emotions in the reader, and I don't think this does that.
The baby example will stick if you do not stop. In egg throwing example, probably I will not stop as intuatively I think why eggs being thrown on my windshield. I will probably drive far away and then stop to check or to clean.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, credibility of such news. When I searched it online I did not find such incident in US. Here is a link from UrbanLegend with similar warnings:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/crime/a/national_gang_week.htm
The warnings from above link are similar to the example in professor's post. It shows that it came from Dept of Correction of that State. Overall, to be safe I would not stop in lonely and unknown area. I think it is just safe practice.
As said above, I have not heard incidents in US but I have heard similar incidents in overseas. One example where wannabe gangs put rocks on the middle of the road or lay down a barbed wire so that a vehicle has to stop.
I think that these stories are simple in that they are short and to the point. Driving down the street and seeing an infant car seat with a towel over it. Its unexpected because you do not know whats under the towel-therefore surprise! Its emotional because as the story goes, if you stop you will get robbed, beaten, or killed. Its credible because it says that this is a new gang tactic and the police know it. For stories, its a story!
ReplyDeleteI've heard something similar to this. While driving down a dirt road, you notice a small tree down that is small enough to move by yourself, but not small enough to go around. Should you get out of the car and move it? No way! Someone cut that tree down and strategically put it there so when someone gets out of the car to move the branch, a group of people come out and jack your car! Best advise would be to put your car in reverse and find an alternate route.
Both of these try to be credible by trying to offer convincing details, such as the fact they use a car seat in example #1. They also try offering up a credible source in the form of the police and the unnecessarily exact statistic for how much eggs block your vision when combined with water.
ReplyDeleteThese warnings both tell an interesting story - the kind I wouldn't be surprised to see on TV or in a movie. In the process of telling these stories, they inspire emotions of fear. Even though I am skeptical of how truthful they are, you can be sure I wouldn't want to stop my car should either scenario happen to me this week!
I get these all the time from one of my family members. I can see it coming when the subject line starts with "Fwd:Fwd:Fwd:Fwd:Fwd:" I'm fairly convinced that he believes each one of them!
I agree with everyone here, both these stories are simple and use fear. I have read the baby story about 2 years ago and till this day I would never stop if I saw a car seat on the road.
ReplyDeleteIt is so interesting how these stories can spread. I actually read the baby story in Arabic a couple of years ago and it was said that the gang who initiated this was doing that to kidnap women.
I can't remember anyone I know who has ever passed by an abandoned baby in a car seat or had eggs thrown on their windshield.
To answer the question if it is possible a professor assigned his students to write these stories, I think yes. In a writing class I took a while back, we were asked to write one paragraph stories and had to have a big event in them, we were all given the choice to write it as fiction or non fiction and then our class mates would read them and figure out which were they. Some of the stories I read were very creative and similar to these urban legend examples.
I believe the first story is “sticky” because it is simple, unexpected, concrete, emotional, and a story. First off, the story is simple because it delivers the core message that it is not safe to stop and check an abandoned car seat on the side of the road. The story does not attempt to give the reader a bunch of facts. Rather, it simply states what is happening and instructs you on what to do, effectively getting the message across. Next, the story is unexpected (from my point of view) because I have never heard of an occurrence like this before. Thus, the element of surprise kept me interested and it is not something I will easily forget. I also feel the story was concrete because it painted an image in my mind – a blanket covered car seat and a wooded or grassy area. I could visualize the situation. The story tapped into my emotions because it raised a sense of fear. It alerted me to a situation I am afraid of – being beaten and robbed. Finally, the story was a story because it will drive my actions – I will not stop when I see a car seat on the side of the road. Rather, I will call the police to ensure my safety. I thought the story lacked some credibility due to the context it was presented in (a chain email.) Yet, the fact it referenced an authority figure (the Canton PD) gives the reader a sense of trust in what they should do if they find themselves in this situation.
ReplyDeleteI felt the second story was much less “sticky” than the first story. This is due to the fact that the second story was not written as well and did not evoke an emotional response like the first story. The story painted an image in the reader’s mind (milky film on your windshield from the eggs and water) and delivers the message of what to do in this situation. However, the story uses a statistic that many readers will not remember. Also, the core message of the story is hidden by the poor writing. Further, it did not present very much credibility. However, the story will drive action for its readers by informing them how to handle this situation. As such, if eggs are ever thrown at my windshield at night I will avoid trying to clean them off with my windshield wipers right away.
This is the first time I have heard these stories, but I would not be surprised if I read about a similar event in the news. I do think it is possible a professor could have given this to students as an assignment. It would be a great lesson in how quickly a well-written urban legend can spread.
About two years ago, there was thread in the Springfield area. The word on the street was women with small children will be attacked by gang members. After reading the first five chapters of “made to stick” I realize that this thread “sticks” since is targeted to females and defenseless children. I believe that if the gang members were targeting only men then the situation wouldn’t be of great importance. On the other hand, I am sure that my wife will send me to get milk in down town Springfield at midnight just to see if is true. I guess is a win/win situation. If I make it home, she gets her milk and if I don’t, she gets to collect my life insurance.
ReplyDeleteCan you pick out the SUCCESs elements in these examples?
ReplyDeleteThe element resides on the fact that there is an infant on the road. If it happens to be an empty bottle on the road I believe we wouldn’t bother to see “why is there a bottle on the side of the road”.
On the second story, the driver’s vision would be block by 92.5% which motivates the person to stop the vehicle. This presents is in a tough situation because if you stop you will get robbed but if you keep driving you most likely will crash. So the title of this story should be “picking between the evils”.
The infant story grabbed my attention due to that incident in Springfield on my last message. There are many violent crime stories that involve people trying to harm benevolent citizens by staging these types of situations. .
I am a horrible story teller or writer (as you can see) so writing an urban legend would be a great idea but I will have to put my imagination to work…a lot....
The thought of writing an urban legend has been on my mind since I first read this blog! I was intrigued so I began to "chatter" about it with my friends and family!!
ReplyDeleteSome came up with idea's some started talking about urban legends that they had remembered! It was a great conversation starter or as some would say....Great Cocktail Conversation!
Either way, the idea stuck in my mind for long time and was credable to eveyone I talked with..
Then I began to think about one that I would write and realized that I could be pretty sadistic!... So I decided to stick reading and wondering about urban legends insteas of creating them.
I found the first story to be quite “sticky”, for it was simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and a story. The store is simple because it is well written and successfully delivers the message that drivers should not get out of their cars when they see what appears to be an abandoned baby on the side on the road. I found this story to be unexpected because typically drivers do not see abandoned babies on the road much like we do with trash, road kill, blown out tires, etc. Therefore, the idea of the abandoned baby quickly grasped my attention and forced me to continue reading. In addition to being simple and unexpected, the story was also concrete because it was very detail oriented and gave you a vivid image on the scenario by describing the placement of the car seat and the blanket that was draped over it. Additionally, although this story was sent via e-mail I feel as if it is credible because they mention the Canton Police Department in their story. In order to ensure that I could trust the story was true, I would cross reference it with the police department.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I grew upset when I first read that the driver saw a car seat on the side of the road. The first thought that crossed my mind was, WHO WOULD LEAVE A BABY ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD! The story also struck my emotions when I came to find that it was a way for gangs to beat and rape the victims who fall for the prank. It fears me to think that innocent people could be hurt/killed when they are only trying to be good citizens. However, although I was upset to hear this I am glad that I read this e-mail because I will certainly refrain from stopping if I were to ever see something like this and would call the Police Department instead.
While the second story still contained some SUCCESs elements, it appeared to be a lot less “sticky” in my eyes. While the story was simple, it seemed to have run on sentences and a poor written structure. Hearing the story about eggs hitting a windshield was not necessarily unexpected nor did it evoke an emotional response because eggs being thrown at windshields is known to happen from time to time. However, it did affect me emotionally in the sense that it really bothers me to think that gangs are seeking out random suspects to hurt and kill for no apparent reason. The story also lacks credibility because while they use the percentage 92.5% with regards to blocked vision, this could have been made up for all we know. The story was relatively concrete in the sense that, as a reader I could picture the milky substance caused by eggs mixed with water. Although the story is not as “sticky” as the first due to the aforementioned reasons, I have still learned a valuable lesson not to use my windshield wipers to clean my windshield if eggs are thrown at my car. I am glad I learned about this because my instincts would certainly encourage me to turn my wipers on.
Fortunately, I am happy to say that neither of these stories have ever happened to someone I know. Also, I do believe that a teacher like you teaching a class similar to this could have created an assignment where students were created to create an Urban Legend. If that were the case, it would show just how “sticky” Urban Legends can be and just how fast they can spread.
I think there are several key elements to the ‘SUCCESs’ example from Made to Stick. Most notable in both warnings is the story element. These are great stories to tell, easy to remember, and sound important or dangerous. In the first warning about the car seat left on the side of the road, the tactic is clearly emotional. By reading the story it hits home for people because it is about a helpless baby being left on the side of the road. Both warnings are simple as well, making them easy to re-tell and pass along. Certain key elements of the simple factor are that the warning involves a gang, and states a clear reason to be warned; which brings upon a danger factor.
ReplyDeleteI’m generally a very cautious person, but most likely I would stop my car if I was presented with either situation. Too many times do I hear that the general public ignores the cries of people in danger, therefore if I saw something unusual I would stop. My cautious side would tell me to be very observant of my surroundings and be prepared if I exited my car. If an egg (or anything else) was thrown at my car I would pull it around and investigate.
Their stickiness does not incline me to change my behavior. As far as I’m concerned I could care less about stories told through emails chains.