Your brain fills in gaps it can’t see. That’s why rumors feel complete. Ask what’s actually known.

Gaps do not feel like gaps. Your mind patches them so smoothly that a story with three facts and nine guesses arrives feeling seamless, and seamlessness is what you mistake for truth. Nobody has to lie for this to happen; the filling-in is automatic and happens before you form an opinion.

Try splitting a story into two lists. On one side, what somebody actually saw or said; on the other, what has been supplied to make it make sense. The second list is usually longer, and the parts that make the story worth repeating are almost always on it.