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From the first moment I heard this story I believed it was mass hysteria and I haven't seen anything that changed my instinct on that. Now, that's just one man'

From the first moment I heard this story I believed it was mass hysteria and I haven't seen anything that changed my instinct on that. Now, that's just one man's completely baseless opinion. What's been interesting is that everyone I have said it to (this is in real life) has reacted the same way: defensive, cross, irritated. As if they had a stake in the outcome. It was a stronger reaction than "meh"...it was an angry response. I think people find something deeply distasteful about the concept of mass hysteria.

Angostura 9y ago
I think it sparks that reaction for two reasons; 1. it doesn't satisfy our deep-seated need to find a reason for things 2. It sounds like an off-hand dismissal with implied criticism of the sufferer. Perhaps we need to find a way to remove the stigma from mass hysteria. Come up with with different name perhaps.
- richmarr 9y ago
  I think a name change would be very beneficial, but also, mass hysteria seems like more than one phenomenon, and at least some of it seems mixed with hyperbole so unpicking it all might help too. This instance sounds like one the 'medical' variety of mass hysteria, but there's also the psychological version where the only symptom is a panic caused by perception of threat (real or imaginary). I sat through a lunch talk a couple of years ago by Dr Julia Pierce, a psychologist who's a specialist in public response to threat. She had an armful of case studies where people had proclaimed 'mass hysteria' but actually looking at the evidence people had broadly remained calm and made normal choices. For example a lot of people talk about "panic" during the evacuation of the World Trade Centre in 2001 but actually during a lot of those episodes you find people acting fairly rationally, going back to help colleagues etc. or descending stairs in an orderly fashion, moving out of the way for others, etc. The evidence she presented suggested that the conditions that prompt actual panic are predictable and quite constrained. We're less susceptible to it than Hollywood might suggest.
ragequitta 9y ago
I think it's more that we should be able to trust some of the best doctors in 2 countries (Canada too) to figure that out before slate does. We want to trust that medical doctors know more than the layman about such things.
- MrABCDEFG 9y ago
  But isn't it the point that the doctors have no clue what happened? And struggling for an explaination go with the sonic attack vector? I see this often, people who are pressed for an explaination and have no clue make things up.
andyjohnson0 9y ago
> I think people find something deeply distasteful about the concept of mass hysteria Possibly unease that their perception of reality and the state of their own body, can be rendered inaccurate?
- rawfan 9y ago
  I was once in an underground train tunnel fire. There was no real danger (at least I'd like to think so), but it was interesting to watch how people reacted. In some folks eyes you could see hysteria taking control and the brains shutting off. They wouldn't have noticed if they trampled others to death in this state. Luckily around 10% were completely calm and managed to calm down the others. The scary thing really wasn't the fire but the people who completely lost control over their bodies.
Chris2048 9y ago
> As if they had a stake in the outcome A new type of weapon is relevant to everyone if deployed against the public..
- M_Bakhtiari 9y ago
  In that case voicing the hypothesis would be reassuring, not aggravating.
  - Chris2048 9y ago
    A movement to de-fund traditional medicine in favor of homeopathy, on the hypothesis that it works better, would reassure you? Sounds like they didn't find the hypothesis convincing, and felt it might detract from the issue.
ataturk 9y ago
I didn't pay that much attention to the story but I figured it was either some kind of IC ploy to discredit Cuba for political purposes or figured it was remotely possible that somebody was testing out some new tech and being dicks to Americans due to the tense relations between our country and the godless communist scum that operate the Cuban gulag. It's fitting that the US has its own gulag there since the whole island is really just one big jail. Someday they will be liberated and Marxism will be eradicated once and for all. Anyhow, if you want to see mass hysteria, a far better example is cryptocurrency "mining" and the people buying that hype.
orblivion 9y ago
If one were to argue to someone "The reported facts don't matter. Your own instincts on the matter are wrong. Here's what's really going on. You should believe me." and they did believe you, that sounds like the setup for a cult. So maybe the people you were talking to had their defenses up in anticipation for that sort of thing (whether or not you took such a tone)? (I like to argue that cognitive dissonance can actually be valuable for this reason) Your claim shatters people's reality. You should make sure to propose some objective rules for the universe that can be used to scrutinize your own claim among other possible explanations.
tremendulo 9y ago
I wonder if the victims/hysterics themselves would react similarly upon questing? i.e. with a defensive emotional reaction, assuming such an emotion were observable in the midst of the other strange behaviour: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/10-strangest-mass-hysterias1.htm https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/10-stran...
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Angostura 9y ago

I think it sparks that reaction for two reasons; 1. it doesn't satisfy our deep-seated need to find a reason for things 2. It sounds like an off-hand dismissal with implied criticism of the sufferer. Perhaps we need to find a way to remove the stigma from mass hysteria. Come up with with different name perhaps.

richmarr 9y ago
I think a name change would be very beneficial, but also, mass hysteria seems like more than one phenomenon, and at least some of it seems mixed with hyperbole so unpicking it all might help too. This instance sounds like one the 'medical' variety of mass hysteria, but there's also the psychological version where the only symptom is a panic caused by perception of threat (real or imaginary). I sat through a lunch talk a couple of years ago by Dr Julia Pierce, a psychologist who's a specialist in public response to threat. She had an armful of case studies where people had proclaimed 'mass hysteria' but actually looking at the evidence people had broadly remained calm and made normal choices. For example a lot of people talk about "panic" during the evacuation of the World Trade Centre in 2001 but actually during a lot of those episodes you find people acting fairly rationally, going back to help colleagues etc. or descending stairs in an orderly fashion, moving out of the way for others, etc. The evidence she presented suggested that the conditions that prompt actual panic are predictable and quite constrained. We're less susceptible to it than Hollywood might suggest.

ragequitta 9y ago

I think it's more that we should be able to trust some of the best doctors in 2 countries (Canada too) to figure that out before slate does. We want to trust that medical doctors know more than the layman about such things.

MrABCDEFG 9y ago
But isn't it the point that the doctors have no clue what happened? And struggling for an explaination go with the sonic attack vector? I see this often, people who are pressed for an explaination and have no clue make things up.

andyjohnson0 9y ago

> I think people find something deeply distasteful about the concept of mass hysteria Possibly unease that their perception of reality and the state of their own body, can be rendered inaccurate?

rawfan 9y ago
I was once in an underground train tunnel fire. There was no real danger (at least I'd like to think so), but it was interesting to watch how people reacted. In some folks eyes you could see hysteria taking control and the brains shutting off. They wouldn't have noticed if they trampled others to death in this state. Luckily around 10% were completely calm and managed to calm down the others. The scary thing really wasn't the fire but the people who completely lost control over their bodies.

Chris2048 9y ago

> As if they had a stake in the outcome A new type of weapon is relevant to everyone if deployed against the public..

M_Bakhtiari 9y ago
In that case voicing the hypothesis would be reassuring, not aggravating.
- Chris2048 9y ago
  A movement to de-fund traditional medicine in favor of homeopathy, on the hypothesis that it works better, would reassure you? Sounds like they didn't find the hypothesis convincing, and felt it might detract from the issue.

ataturk 9y ago

I didn't pay that much attention to the story but I figured it was either some kind of IC ploy to discredit Cuba for political purposes or figured it was remotely possible that somebody was testing out some new tech and being dicks to Americans due to the tense relations between our country and the godless communist scum that operate the Cuban gulag. It's fitting that the US has its own gulag there since the whole island is really just one big jail. Someday they will be liberated and Marxism will be eradicated once and for all. Anyhow, if you want to see mass hysteria, a far better example is cryptocurrency "mining" and the people buying that hype.

orblivion 9y ago

If one were to argue to someone "The reported facts don't matter. Your own instincts on the matter are wrong. Here's what's really going on. You should believe me." and they did believe you, that sounds like the setup for a cult. So maybe the people you were talking to had their defenses up in anticipation for that sort of thing (whether or not you took such a tone)? (I like to argue that cognitive dissonance can actually be valuable for this reason) Your claim shatters people's reality. You should make sure to propose some objective rules for the universe that can be used to scrutinize your own claim among other possible explanations.

tremendulo 9y ago

I wonder if the victims/hysterics themselves would react similarly upon questing? i.e. with a defensive emotional reaction, assuming such an emotion were observable in the midst of the other strange behaviour: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/10-strangest-mass-hysterias1.htm https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/10-stran...

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