Chinese-Whispers Effect

The effect that occurs when something is heard through word of mouth, a variation on the original message or topic of discussion, as commonly happens in the childhood game of Chinese-Whispers.

When gossip or a story is being passed around, being told to one person, who retells it to another, and with each re-telling the story is changed slightly, until by the last re-telling it has changed almost beyond recognition of the original story.