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Mass hysteria is the type of group behavior that involves a…

Mass hysteria is the type of group behavior that involves a widely held and contagious anxiety, usually as a result of false belief. The reaction in part of the country to the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds is one example. This dramatization of Martians landing on Earth was so realistic that people began to panic and flee before the realization set in that they were reacting to a radio play. The medieval witch-hunts are another good example of mass hysteria. They were based on the belief that witches were the cause of many problems in late medieval society, including natural disasters and illness. Those accused of being witches (mainly old women) were tortured until they confessed or died. As many as 500,000 people were burned to death by clergy between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.