Examples Of Mass Hysteria

Throughout my life I have experienced many different psychological devices that I was unaware existed until we began to study them in psychology. These ranged from the bystander effect to conformity within groups of my peers throughout school. I would like to discuss some of them and some situations in which they were a part of my life experiences.
One experience in my life is an instance of the bystander effect. My example is what you would think of as cliché, like a scene from a movie or something, but I’ve experienced it firsthand nonetheless. One day when I was in high school, I passed by a girl who had opened her locker, only to have her books and papers fall out and on to the floor. It was busy out in the hallway so you would think that at least one person would stop and help her, but no one did. I’m sure everyone had the same idea in their heads as I did, “Someone will stop and help her.” Everyone just glanced at her and continued on their way, showing the concept of the bystander effect. In this situation, everyone just assumed that someone else would help the girl, yet because everyone felt this way, no one took the time to stop and help her.
Mass Hysteria has become very prominent in society today because of social media. One huge example of mass hysteria is with the current Ebola outbreak in Africa and the cases that have been brought to America. Because the information that is being spread about the virus can be so misconstrued and people are easy to believe what is said on social media without researching it, they read false information and believe it to be true. For example, I have been scrolling through my Facebook feed, only to see people reposting and commenting on a post saying that people who have died from Ebola are rising from the dead. They believe this to be true and become afraid and panic because so many other people have been posting or talking about