A newly released report on rumor spreading in China found that the majority of online rumors are started for the sole purpose of causing fear or creating panic among the public.

The report found that 65 percent of rumors spread on WeChat, the Tencent-owned mobile text and voice messaging service, were designed to rigger public fear. The main themes involved in the rumors were safety, food security, illness and health, reports Global Times.

Like Us on Facebook

The research was conducted by Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University, Tencent's WeChat, and news site Weiboreach.com. It analyzed 255 posts released by public accounts on WeChat between November 3 to 20 that are considered fake. It is the first report to study rumors on the WeChat app.

According to the report, 51 percent of rumors focused on human safety, 37 percent were about food security, while 12 percent of the rumors were centered on illnesses.

"Because of the spread of rumors on WeChat, the report aims to better help people identify them and promote media literary," Zhang Zhi'an, a professor at the school and one of the report's authors, told the Global Times.

The report also noted that more than 27 percent of rumors studied used superlatives such as "100 percent" and "the first one" to claim credibility and accuracy. It also used alarmist words such as "disfigure," "carcinogenic," "poisonous" and "kill" in at least one-third of all of the posts.

"It is hard for people to ignore these alleged statistics, pictures and dire consequences," said Zhang.

Nearly half of the posts triggered panic with such headlines as "Do Not Ever Buy This Begetable! It Will 100 Percent Cause Cancer!" and "Every Time You Brush Your Teeth You Are Taking Drugs!"

The rumormongers also used lots of photos to drive their point home, according to the report An average of 3.56 pictures are used in each post, the report said.

The report determined that news without reliable or clear sources, as well as those containing alarmist words are most likely rumors. Users can also identify rumors by checking if they are old posts.

"I hope this report can help reduce the number of people who trust and spread rumors and raise public awareness of critical thinking in the Internet age," said Zhang.

TagsDon’t Panic But Most Online Rumors Are Intended to Create Panic, Sun Yat-sen University, Weiboreach.com, Zhang Zhi'an, 65 percent of rumors spread on WeChat