Blog 3 Post: Mass Delusions & Hysterias

 Mass Hysterias which consists of the rapid and widespread appearance of unusual uncharacteristic behaviors, beliefs, feelings or even the possibility of physical symptoms among a group of people. Mass Delusions which is about the broader and refers to the widespread of acceptance of false beliefs within a population. Even though there is no underlying health condition or environmental cause to explain what is going on. More so a collective illusion of threat spread through a population due to rumors, fear and psychological contagion. More specifically in "The Salem Witch Trials" in 1692-1693 which young girls were accused of being possessed by the devil because of their strange behavior and fits were diagnosed as bewitchment and interpreted as evidence of demonic possession. Furthermore, the accusations were not based on real evidence but a combination of beliefs and claims which created a climate of fear and  mass hysteria within the community. Leading to trials, torture, imprisonment and executions. An example of this in the modern day to a less degree would be people in fear of the Covid vaccines which for some it demonstrates fear and anxiety in belief of impending doom which is a form of mass hysteria. So when talking about both examples, they show how paranoia, fear and shared delusions are able to take ahold of a community which could also have the ability to lead to devastating consequences. 

A modern day example of mass delusions/mass hysteria that can underpin these terms to a lesser extent would be an experiment I saw from a different class. In this example it kinda reminded me of these terms for which is called "The Asch conformity experiment". Here I saw this where a group of individuals were suppose to give a wrong answer when asked questions while one other individual would come in unknowingly that the whole group was in on the experiment except for him to see how he would react to conforming to others answers. The 1 individual did not know the experiment was going on and when the others were asked easy simple questions and answered them wrong the one individual who was not in on the experiment would see others answer the question wrong and agree with them while knowing it was not the correct answer. This reminds of this lecture topic for its focus in this case is social pressure and conformity of the majority group like The Salem Witch Trials where in some cases people were scared to be accused of something so its easier to agree with everyone else instead of going with what you really believe for the fact you didn't want to be put on the spot so with social influence was a desire to fit in.