The 'St Jude' mind virus
Sir - We have previously suggested the existence of human information parasites,
or, in their simple form, "viruses of the mind" [1-3]. The St Jude chain letter
(reproduced below) provides an example. It is simple, direct and, by its
apparent longevity, very fit. Anecdotal evidence [4-12] confirm its virulence
and suggest that it is one of a class of postal parasites.
A virus is a piece of code that promotes its own replication. Viruses are
parasitic in that the energy and other costs of duplication are borne by
the hosts and not by the virus. Conventional virutes propagate DNA or RNA
information, through cellular machinery that is already set up to obey their
language. Computer viruses succeed because computers are set up slavishly to
obey the programming languages in which their 'duplicate me' instructions are
written. 'Viruses of the mind' or 'memes' [1-3] would also succeed in getting
themselves duplicated if human minds were set up to obey them. A piece of
paper bearing the words 'Make 10 copies of me and send them to 10 people' would
spread its message like a brushfire, if only brains obeyed instructions as
slavishly as computers. There seems to be no obvious reason, however, why
people should be so mindlessly obliging.
The phenomenon of the chain letter is a sobering case. (The name is not apt
because a chain is normally a linear array of links; the 'chain' letter, on
the other hand, forms an exponentially branching tree.) A particularly stark
example, the St Jude letter, was received recently by Alison Clarkson, who showed
it to her husband (O. R. G.). O. R. G. promptly sent it to R.D. The analogy
to biological viruses is clear. St Jude infects potential hosts through the
vector of the post. By inducing guilt, fear, greed and piety, it causes
susceptible hosts to multiply it 20-fold and transmit the 20 new copies to
new potential hosts through the postal vector. Each new host then potentially
initiates the production of another 20 copies. Whether or not any particular
infection is successful, St Jude's hosts can suffer mental distress, as real,
in its own way, as the physical distress caused by the common cold.
There is anecdotal evidence for the longevity and distribution of the St
Jude strain of postal virus. By its own account, which must be viewed with
some scepticism, the St Jude strain was in circulation as early as 1903.
Paul M Griffo, national spokesman for the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS),
said in a recent interview: "Ah, the St Jude letter. Nine is a low estimate
of how many times that thing has been around the world. It's as old as dirt." [4]
Griffo confirms (personal communication) that it goes back further than the
institutional memory of the US postal service, and has periodic outbreaks.
He reports that the St Jude virus has had various incarnations - for example,
the "A.R.P." officer in the text of the letter is, in some other versions,
referred to as an RAF oficer. The present outbreak (which we refer to as St
Jude 1) has included members of the news media among its sufferers, with the
result that the recent appearance of St Jude 1 or a near variant can be
documented or inferred in locations as far apart as Seattle [4],
England [5] and Dallas [6].
Many potential hosts must be immune. If all hosts were susceptible to each
infection, each successive generation of St Jude 1 would grow by a power of 20.
By the end of 8 generations, there would be a total of 20**8 or 2.56 * 10**10
copies in the post. At this rate, every one in the world, on average, would
reeive 4.5 copies. The fact that this has not occurred is negative evidence
of immunity. Previous infection with any kind of chain letter is likely to
raise resistance. Furthermore, St Jude is perhaps counterproductive in
specifying 20 copies. Many would-be obeyers might be put off by the labour
of making and sending as many as 20 copies. Twofold duplication might,
paradoxically, show more effective penetration.
We turned out to be immune, although we both admit to experiencing waves of
mild, irrational anxiety on deciding not to comply, and we could be said to
seek a modicum of good luck by sharing it, on a purely scientific basis,
through the medium of this journal. Indeed, this report constitutes a sort
of meme therapy, for we have attached our own information package to a mind
virus of proven virulence.
Other strains of postal virus use slightly different manipulative techniques
to engineer their propagation. Some promise money to their hosts [4].
Examples of this have recently appeared on the Internet [7]. Other chain
letters currently circulating involve the exchange of women's underwear [5,8],
postcards of "naked Asian Girls" [9], and protests on the disappearance of
a young woman [10]. It has been reported that one particularly virulent
chain, which originally requested get-well wishes and/or business cards for
a young cancer patient in the UK named Craig Shergold, has produced more than
70 million responses [11]. Despite published pleas to stop, "mountains of
unwanted business cards" keep arriving daily [12]. The Craig Shergold letter
has been documented in Hong Kong, where the governor, Chris Patten, is reported
to have participated [9].
St Jude 1 provides confirmation for the existence of human mind viruses.
It is, of course, still a leap to a more general theory of more complicated
mental parasites and symbionts. It can be argued that crude viruses like
St Jude are simply doing on a small, crude, but robust level what culture
systems are doing more pervasively and with greater complexity. Whether or
not this leap is justified, the identification of St Jude 1 helps to move
the debate about viruses of the mind from the abstract to the concrete and may
lead to the identification of other examples.
We have no intention of launching experimental chain letters into the general
population for the purpose of testing hypotheses of quantitative epidemiology,
for measuring mutation rates, or for assessing the limits of human gullibility.
Oliver R Goodenough
Vermont Law School
South Royalton
Vermont 05068, USA
Richard Dawkins
Department of Zoology
University of Oxford,
South Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
[1] Dawkins, R in "Dennett and his Critics (ed. Dalhbom, B) 13-27 (Blackwell,
Oxford, 1993).
[2] Goodenough, O, in "Proceedings of the London School of Economics
Conference on Evolution and the Human Sciences", 12 (LSE, London, 1993).
[3] Dawkins, R, "The Selfish Gene" (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1976).
[4] Foster, D, Los Angeles Times, Metro, Part B, page 6 (13 February 1994).
[5] Bresler, F, The Daily Telegraph, page 6, (26 March 1994).
[6] Powell, L, The Dallas Morning News, pages 18A, (29 March 1994).
[7] Burgess, J, The Washington Post, Financial, page F19, (28 March 1994).
[8] Press Association News File, Home News (6 March 1994).
[9] South China Post, Business, page 16 (14 February 1994).
[10] Adcock, S, Newsday, News, page 4 (10 March 1994).
[11] Downey, M & Shurling, B, The Atlanta Constitution, Section E, page 2,
(28 February 1994).
[12] Winter, C, Chicago Tribune, Metro Northwest, page 1 (20 April 1994).
With Love All Things Are Possible
This paper has been sent to you for Luck. The original is in New England.
It has been sent around the world. The Luck has been sent to you.
You will receive good luck within 4 days of receiving this letter pending
in turn you send it on.
This is no joke. You will receive good luck in the mail. Send no money.
Send copies to people you think need good luck. Do not send money cause
faith has no price. Do not keep this letter. It must leave your hands
within 96 hrs.
An ARP officer Joe Elliot received $40,000,000. George Welch lost his
wife 5 days after this letter. He failed to circulate the letter.
However before her death he received $7,775,000. Please send copies and
see what happens after 4 days.
Th