Mass Hysteria: when people wont think for themselves

To this day people have always taken toward the mob mentality whenever some supposedly disastrous moment occurs which then leads towards mass confusion since everyone believes those around are using their better judgement; which never happens but still people remain far too hopeful for their own good. Given any circumstance where a person is to think for themselves alone, they will. However, there is also the case where this same person will be fooled into believing the terror to be real given the right stimulus towards making this belief a personal reality; which again is a clever ruse used to confuse a normally rational person, if they were rational to begin with.

Lets look at the witch hunts for a more or less good example. Sure the peasants weren't the most educated of people, granted the only ones who were educated were the ones using the ruse to misdirect from the real problems of the colonies and point the blame at seemly harmless victims. This is done of course by spreading the lie of these victims being in some kind of acquaintance of a so called devil, and as these were dumb, religious ignorant buffoons so it was more of a case of the liars guiding the blind.  But regardless, Mass hysteria such as this is just the result of a lot of people refusing to make a good thought of their own while being regarded in a group.