What is the difference between urban legends and scary stories?
Urban legends are stories that are traditionally told to be “true” that talk about some sort of misfortune or superstition. While they can be scary in nature, the difference is that these are stories that most people either assume to be true, or stories that people don’t believe are true but are conceivable and could have happened, but probably didn’t. A lot of times, they are frightening in nature (such as, “Did you hear about the girl who had spiders lay eggs under her skin and then they hatched out of her face?!”). Scary stories on the other hand are not usually passed off to be true. Many times, they are somewhat supernatural or unexplained in nature. Ghost stories or stories about crazy murderers would be “scary stories.” There could be some overlap, but usually the distinction is that an urban legend is something that is usually passed off for being a far-fetched fact.
