Herd mentality

A lonely field. A dog left all alone. A woman, seemingly vanished into thin air. Now, a body found in a rural river. 

It sounds like the plot of a television drama. It is not. It is a real-life tragedy for one family. 

On Friday 27 January, 45-year-old Nicola Bulley took her dog for a walk by a river in Lancashire, England. 

She never returned - and for three weeks, there was no news. Then, yesterday, a body was found in the river by police. 

What started as a normal missing person case quickly spiralled into a national obsession. The story has dominated newspaper headlines and social media. 

An army of amateur sleuthsDetectives. suggested numerous theories, from the mundaneOrdinary. It originally referred to something that belonged to Earth rather than heaven. to the ridiculous. One "influencer" was even arrested after taking it upon himself to search for evidence. 

As many as 170,000 people go missing every year in Britain.¹ So why has this story gained so much media attention? 

One explanation is that most people who go missing are found quickly - there is no need for media appeals. But others argue that bias plays a part too - cases that involve middle class White women are more likely to stay in the headlines. 

Now, the police have come under fire for releasing intimate details of Nicola Bulley's life.

The UK's National Union of Journalists say that journalists should do "nothing to intrude into anybody's private life, grief or distress". But the guidance goes on to clarify that there is an exception - "unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest". So where does the line lie between something that interests the public, and something that is in the public interest?

Police hope that media appeals will increase the likelihood that someone will come forward as a witness. 

Witnesses did come forward in this case. But hundreds of people also visited the place Nicola Bulley disappeared and thousands more discussed the case online.

Humans are, for some reason, drawn to stories of suffering. Psychologists refer to this as negativity bias. It may be an evolutionary trait that we have clung on to because noticing the bad parts of life educates us in how to avoid them. 

For now, police are still investigating what happened to Nicola Bulley. It may be some time before there are answers for her family. But some say the media circus tells us something about ourselves.

Is it wrong to gossip?

Yes: When people hear interesting or surprising information, it is natural to want to share it. But doing so can be harmful. It can lead to the spread of false information - or potentially even reinforce damaging stereotypes. 

No: Gossip is often fuelled by human curiosity. It helps us to share important information and is part of the rich human history of oral storytelling.

Or... News and gossip are two very different things, yet many people confuse them. While both may involve sharing information, the way they are gathered, verified, and disseminated is vastly different.