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The 2008 election has seen a plethora of false, derogatory and damaging rumors. Some of the most common falsehoods: Barack Obama is a Muslim. Sarah Palin is Trig's grandmother. John McCain had an affair with an attractive lobbyist.

My hoaxbuster site friends tell me that tales about Senator Obama-that he refuses to pledge allegiance to the flag, swore his oath of office on a Koran, was trained in a terrorist camp, and receives major funding from Arabs-far outnumbered those targeting other politicians. That is, until Sarah Palin stepped on the national stage.

Since then we have witnessed an explosion of rumors about Governor Palin-some of which were fueled by premature stories in major newspapers: she's part of a group that wants Alaska to secede from the Union, she tried to ban Harry Potter books from Wasilla Library, she pushed for creationism to be part of the high school science curriculum in Alaska, and she called Obama "Sambo." All false.

What can explain the prevalence of these rumors? I'd like to focus on one answer to that question in this post, and apply some of the rumor psychology I explored in The Watercooler Effect.

The short answer is: one part uncertainty, one part belief, and one part defensive sentiment. And possibly one part propaganda. Today let's tackle uncertainty.