A coupled model for government communication and rumor spreading in emergencies

The dissemination of official messages and the spreading of rumors are both key factors in emergency situations. In this paper, a coupled model is established to describe the interaction between official government communiques and the spreading of rumors during emergencies. The mathematical property of the proposed model is discussed, and the results showed that the official message diffusion has positive effects on thwarting rumor spreading. Three different scenarios for population behavior evolution are identified according to the degree of government involvement. The results shed new light to comprehend information dissemination in emergencies and provide some hint on how to limit the spreading of rumor within populations after emergency occur.