mass hysteria
Summary
Mass hysteria is a form of collective behavior in which a fear, belief, or physical symptom spreads quickly through a group, usually with no physical cause found. The testable point is that it is explained by social contagion, meaning people copy the reactions of others.
Detail
Meaning: Mass hysteria is a type of collective behavior, which is relatively spontaneous, unstructured action by a group. When a threat is ambiguous or stress is high, people become suggestible and adopt the reactions they see in others. Symptoms or fear then spread as more members witness them. When the spreading symptoms are physical, such as fainting, nausea or headache, the term mass psychogenic illness is also used. The symptoms are genuinely felt, not faked.
On the MCAT: A passage describes many people in one setting, such as a school or workplace, developing similar symptoms or panic after seeing someone else react, with no toxin or infection identified. You may be asked to label this as collective behavior or social contagion. You may also be asked to tell it apart from a fad, a craze, a mob or a riot, or to match it to a theory of collective behavior. Contagion theory fits best, because emotion and behavior spread through a suggestible group. Emergent-norm and convergence theories are other accounts.
Common confusion: Students read it as a psychiatric disorder in each individual. It is a group-level social phenomenon, and "hysteria" here is not a diagnosis. It also differs from a fad, which is a widely adopted but short-lived behavior or style, usually without distress.
Sources
- Sociology (Macionis)
- Introduction to Sociology (Giddens et al.)
Written for the MCAT and checked before it was published. For study reference only. Spotted an error? Let us know.