Say something good about someone behind their back. It’s the one rumor worth starting.

Praise travels the same channels gossip does, and it moves just as fast. Say something genuinely good about a person when they are not there and it reaches them eventually through somebody else, which makes it land harder than if you had said it to their face. It also changes how the room talks, because it is unexpected.

Try it once this week with somebody who would never guess. Be specific about what they actually did rather than general about what they are like. The specifics are what make it believable when it gets back to them.