How Do We Tell a True Story From a Legend?

Every story on ScaryWorld carries a label, shown as a badge next to its title. The label tells you what kind of story you are reading and how much of it, if any, can be checked. There are four.

The four labels

• True Story: a checkable source exists, such as a news report or an official record. This does not mean we have confirmed every detail. We are not an investigative body, and the label only means there is something you can go and check.

• Unverified: a personal account that has not been independently confirmed. The storyteller may be completely sincere. We publish it as they told it, and we say so.

• Legend: a story passed down over time with no single clear source. Its value is in what it says about the people who tell it, not in proof that it happened.

• Fiction: entirely invented, written to be read as a story.

What does not make a story true

A story is not established by being told well, being told often, or being told by someone who believes it. A website repeating a story does not add a second witness. And "unverified" is not an accusation: it only means the claim has not been confirmed from outside the account itself.

What stronger evidence looks like

Look for a first source you can examine: an official record, a named publication, a document. Our case files on real-world mysteries, such as the disappearance of Maura Murray, list their sources and keep what is confirmed apart from what is only reported or theorized.

The labels in practice

Wing Nineteen is fiction. The Silent Caravanserai is a legend. The Doorbell at 3 A.M. is a reader's unverified account. Reading each with its label in mind changes how you hear it, and that is the point.

The full approach is set out in our fact-checking policy and editorial policy, and our article on haunted places in Jordan applies the same thinking to stories about haunted places.