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International Law

: Misleading Advertising Law

Mass hysteria, crazes and panics

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Dr Vaughan Bell writes one of the more interesting blogs, Mind Hacks: Tips & Tricks for Using Your Brain - which is also the name of a book he contributed to. I highly recommend this book - you should get and read it.

Vaughan has a fascinating article on social panics.

The Fortean Times has an article and some fantastic excerpts from a new encyclopaedia on mass hysteria, social panics and fast moving fads called Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior

The book tackles some of the most curious and surprising outbreaks from medieval times to the present day, covering everything from medieval dancing plagues to modern day penis theft panics to the worldwide hula-hoop craze of 1958.
It's by sociologists Hilary Evans and Robert Bartholomew both of whom are well known for their work on how unusual beliefs and experiences are shaped by culture.
However, mass hysterias and the like and still one of the most mysterious aspects of human psychology.
And what about viral marketing? FT has noticed an increase in frauds and hoaxes which exploit the credulous and ignorant.
Could it have turned out that our recent financial panic was no different in kind what ground witch burnings, alien invaders and other clear departures from reasonable behaviour?
Nice to think of the Masters of the Universe as no more collectively rational than teenagers hooked on hula hoops.