Post 3- Mass Delusions and Hysterias

There are many occurrences throughout history that send people into a state of fear or confusion. An example of one of these occurrences is an event called "The War of the Worlds". In 1938, a man named Orson Welles had a radio show that could be listened to throughout the United States. On the show, he talked about a martian invasion that was happening in New Jersey. He claimed that they had begun to attack people with heat rays and poison gas. Sociologists studied the broadcast to see what people were actually thinking about the whole situation. They had concluded that people did not actually take this as a time to panic. The people seemed more angry than actually afraid of what was said to be happening at the time. Another example of a mass delusion is the Salem witch trials in the late 1600s. People in Salem, Massachusetts were being accused of being witches and were being killed or tortured because of these accusations. Young girls would have to be part of a trial in order to clear their names. This caused panic from the town and people were worried about who was a witch or not. The trials ended a few years after because people knew that this had to be fake and people were overplaying the idea of witches actually being around them.