#3 Mass Hysteria

A great example of mass hysteria in recent times was the early days of the COVID-19 panic when it first reached New Jersey back in March. People back then were raiding supermarkets such as ShopRite, Walmart, etc. They were taking food, toilet paper, people were lining up for gas in preparation and fear out of what the virus was gonna do. This is similar to the panics of the past but not quite. In the past during the Salem Witch Trials and the invasion of Earth by Martians, it was based on nonsense. People jumped to the conclusion that some women were witches probably because of the Coherent stories heuristic. Therefore the past hysterias of the past could be avoided if people use facts, from multiple sources and from different points of view to get to the bottom of something. However, to avoid the hysteria by today's COVID-19 pandemic besides staying inside is to find reliable sources of news and not some news channel that uses scare tactics on viewers.