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. The chain comes from Venezula and was written by Saul Anthony Degnas, a missionary from S America. Since that copy must tour the World. You must make 20 copies and send them to friends and associates after a few days you will get a surprise. This is love even if you are not superstitious. Do Note the following: Contonare Dias received this letter in 1903. He asked his Sec'y to make copies and send them out. A few days later he won a lottery of 20 million dollars. Carl Dobbit, an office employee received the letter + forgot it had to leave his hands within 96 hrs. He lost his job. After finding the letter again he made copies and mailed 20 copies. A few days later he got a better job. Dolan Fairchild received the letter and not believing he threw it away. 9 days later he died. In 1987 the letter was received by a young woman in Calif. It was faded and hardly readable. She promised her self she would retype the letter and send it on but, she put it aside to do later. She was plagued with various problems, including expensive car problems. This letter did not leave her hands in 96 hrs. She finally typed the letter as promised and got a new car. Remember send no money. Do not ignor this - it works. St Jude Nature, Volume 371, 1 September 1994