🤫 Remember the One About Marilyn Manson?

What Makes a Rumor Catch Fire and How Companies Can Get Ahead of It, Plus — A Lack of Clarity Around Tariffs Is Sending the Stock Market Spiraling

Author

Katie Perry
March 31, 2025

Welcome to Tuesday Thursday Saturday! I share a snapshot of trending stories across business, tech, and culture three times a week. Subscribe and tell me what you want to hear about next! - KP

The Big Story: Human Beings are Great at Spreading FUD

If you’re between the ages of 30 and 45, you’ve probably heard the rumor about Marilyn Manson actually being Paul Pfeiffer from The Wonder Years. You know — the quiet, awkward best friend who, according to 90s lore, grew up, got some ribs removed, and well, the rest is history.

I’ve always been fascinated by rumors, gossip, and urban legends — firstly because I am a semi-professional yapper, but also because it’s wild to think about how word of mouth worked pre-social media. Your friend would go to summer camp in Pennsylvania and come back regurgitating the same cockamamie rumor that you heard from your older brothers’ friends who spent the summer in Vermont. How?!

Social scientists have studied this for decades. In 1947, Gordon Allport and Leo Postman proposed that a rumor’s strength depends on importance × ambiguity. If something feels urgent but unclear, people will talk. When official information is missing or slow, rumor fills the gap.

By the 1960s, researchers began modeling rumor-spread like a virus. The Daley-Kendall and Maki-Thompson models showed that in a connected group, a rumor could reach up to 80% of people before fading out. In schools, that might mean a hallway whisper going campus-wide by lunch. At work, it could be layoff rumors circulating before HR even hits “send.”

Scheme of Daley-Kendall stochastic model information spreading model

Social media only accelerates the rumor mill, and this is a big issue for companies these days. Last year, Celsius became the target of a viral (and false) TikTok rumor claiming it was poisonous. No science, just one post and a cascade of user videos. Within days, Celsius stock fell nearly 15% (although they also had a pretty mid earnings report), and Google searches for “Celsius cyanide” surged. Sales dropped. Brand trust eroded. $CELH ( ▼ 1.24% )  

This is a textbook case of FUD — fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It doesn’t take a press release to move markets. It takes just enough ambiguity to plant a question. In today’s media environment, FUD spreads fast, especially through social channels, forums, and group chats.

But in the battle for attention, the adage “all press is good press” comes to mind. While this was certainly not the case for Celsius, consider Signal. Downloads of the encrypted messaging app are spiking after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was accidentally added to a private Signal group chat where senior Trump administration officials were discussing military plans in Yemen. According to TechCrunch, once the story broke, Signal downloads jumped 26% in one day, reaching 193,000 the next, and hitting an all-time high of 195,000 midweek, according to Appfigures.

There’s a deeper reason these stories catch fire: information — true or not — is social currency. Having something to share, or being the first to say, “Did you hear...?” gives people status, relevance, and a role in the conversation. On the internet, that effect multiplies. A single tweet can earn attention, engagement, even influence. These days, being early matters more than being accurate.

That’s why social listening is now a core part of brand and investor relations strategy. Tools like Sprinklr, Sprout Social, and others help companies monitor what’s being said in real time. They’re not just tracking mentions; they’re scanning for early signals: a rumor forming, a narrative shifting, a thread starting to gain traction. Used well, these tools let brands monitor, respond, and even shape the narrative before a small ripple becomes a headline. $CXM ( ▲ 1.86% )  $SPT ( ▲ 2.19% )  

Sprout Social dashboard

This concept is at the heart of my new series, co-produced with StockTwits and Stakeholder Labs, for which we scrape real investor questions and speculation from the internet and ask CEOs and CFOs of public companies to address the chatter. You can watch the first episode featuring Affirm here.

Brands today need to take rumors seriously, and while the tech stack has evolved, the psychology has not. People still share what feels unresolved, emotional, or exclusive. Rumors still move through networks just as they did in the '90s (and much earlier than that).

If people are talking about you — good, bad, speculative — congrats! It means you're relevant. In the attention economy, the real red flag isn’t that people are whispering. It’s when the streets aren’t saying anything at all.

Daily Rip Live Recap: Shay’s at a Rocket Launch So We Had a Super Special Guest Host Who Wants Gen Z to Get Off His Damn Lawn

Every weekday, Shay Boloor and I run down the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live. 

Shay is out for a couple of days this week, so I am tagging in some pinch hitters like Rob Petrozzo, Co-Founder and CPO at Rally. His alternative assets company is about to IPO two ultra-exclusive Japanese whiskey blends, which you can learn more about here.

  • The S&P sank to levels not seen since … last September. Okay, well, when you put it that way, it’s not so bad. But still, everything was in the red — until it wasn’t! Everyone is on edge and fired up about so-called Liberation Day, which feels more Les Mis than laissez-faire economics. Ten minutes into the show, Rob admits he has already lost “a Toyota Camry’s worth of money” in the market. 2-4-6-0-1! $TM ( ▲ 0.86% )  

  • We’re all a little degen, but maybe not completely hopeless. While short-term goals are increasingly prioritized among younger generations of investors, these crazy kids are also flocking to hard assets like collectibles in droves. All of this per the World Economic Forum’s new report, which I summarized here over the weekend. Robinhood’s Gold event last week proves they are trying to win across every facet of the new investor experience. $HOOD ( ▲ 2.7% )  

  • This is definitely a step change when it comes to Gen AI’s abilities to tackle rudimentary graphic design. OpenAI’s latest release is … pretty good, not great, but we’ll take it! Welcome to the era of AI slop, where we’ll all be drowning in anime versions of our most ideal selves. The best design will move people emotionally, and those experiences will feel fewer and farther between. (Rob suffers from low self-esteem, so I gave his Ghibli character 2 Rolexes.)

  • Bad omen? Last time all No. 1 seeds were in the (men’s) Final Four, the market dropped 40%. By the way, the most followed athlete still in the tournament is none other than UConn stand-out Paige Bueckers, who put up a casual 40 points the other day.

Hear Shay and I yap about the markets every weekday at 9 a.m. ET on X (@stocktwits), YouTube, LinkedIn, or in your Stocktwits app. Follow me there — I’m @stocktwitsKP!

Now Here’s a Chart

Nothing ever occurs in isolation. A frequent shower thought I have is, I wonder which blurb and which chapter of the history books we’re in right now? We experience life in moments, days, and weeks, and things rarely make sense until you zoom out.

That’s why this diagram shared on X by Bravos Research caught my eye. Are we in a 2007-2008 pattern, or are we in a 2020 pattern where a V-shaped recovery could be on deck? No one knows!

Reading List

🎧 Now playing: “Florida Key” - The New Basement Tapes. This one feels like sunlight on your face!

Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.