mass hysteria

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Definition

Noun: - A condition in which a large group of people exhibit the same state of violent mental agitation: This term describes a collective psychological phenomenon where widespread, intense, and often irrational fear, excitement, or anxiety spreads rapidly through a community or large group of people.

Usage

The term is used to describe a sociological and psychological event where a shared, intense emotional reaction propagates through a population. It often implies a loss of individual critical thinking, leading to collective behavior driven by panic, delusion, or agitation.

Examples
  • The rumor of a contaminated water supply caused mass hysteria in the small town, leading to a run on bottled water.
  • Historians often cite the Salem witch trials as a classic case of mass hysteria.
  • The false alarm triggered mass hysteria at the concert, resulting in a dangerous stampede.
Advanced Usage
  • Sociological Context: The concept is studied in sociology and social psychology to understand how rumors, fears, or beliefs can trigger irrational collective behavior that seems disproportionate to any actual threat.
  • Medical Sociology: Sometimes discussed in the context of "mass psychogenic illness" or "collective stress response," where groups of people experience similar physical symptoms with no identifiable organic cause, often triggered by anxiety.
Variants and Related Words
  • Mass Psychogenic Illness: A related term often used in medical contexts for the spontaneous spread of illness symptoms through a population where no physical cause is found.
  • Collective Hysteria: A near-synonymous phrase.
  • Moral Panic: A related sociological concept where a group or condition is defined as a threat to societal values, often fueled by media and leading to public anxiety, though it may not involve the same "violent mental agitation" as mass hysteria.
Synonyms
  • Collective Hysteria
  • Group Panic
  • Public Frenzy
  • Mass Delusion (emphasizes shared false beliefs)
Antonyms
  • Collective Calm
  • Public Composure
  • Social Stability
Related Phrases and Idioms
  • To whip up a frenzy/hysteria: To deliberately incite intense public excitement or fear.
    • The inflammatory speech was designed to whip up mass hysteria.
  • Contagious fear: Describes how panic can spread like a disease through a crowd.
    • The power outage led to contagious fear, which quickly escalated into mass hysteria.
Noun
  1. a condition in which a large group of people exhibit the same state of violent mental agitation

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