Abstract
This article describes empirical research of rumour in the first half of the 20th century. These decades were full of seminal works affecting research in following years not only in this field.
It is shown that the most important aspect of rumour research was forensic psychology, mainly research on memory, perception and reception of information. By this time rumour was considered as distorted information and was studied in this way.
The article discusses the most significant research in this field - Allport and Postman's experiments - and reflects them in the following scientific discussion. It also shows rare opinions of a few sociologists which envisage rumour as collective phenomena.
Although rumour isn't considered as distorted information nowadays, the research of the first decades of the 20th century functions as a canvas of today's knowledge on this topic.