Heathrow Terminal Evacuation Deemed "Mass Hysteria"
On September 8, Heathrow's Terminal 4 faced an unexpected evacuation after fire crews responded to reports of "possible hazardous materials" at the London airport. While flights were temporarily halted and passengers faced significant inconvenience, emergency services ultimately found no "adverse substance" within the airport premises. Normal operations resumed after a few hours.
During the incident, 21 individuals were treated by the London Ambulance Service, but what truly transpired at Heathrow? The Metropolitan Police cited "mass hysteria" as the likely culprit. Known as mass psychogenic disorder, mass sociogenic illness, epidemic hysteria, or mass hysteria, these events represent types of social contagion.
Such occurrences are marked by the swift spread of symptoms within a social group, absent any identifiable physical cause or infectious agent. The symptoms are genuine, but the catalyst is psychological.
History provides numerous instances. In 1962, a textile factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, shut down due to workers experiencing rashes, numbness, nausea, and fainting. Though investigators suspected an insect in a cloth shipment, no evidence supported this theory. Sociologists later posited a psychogenic origin, linking the outbreak to social ties, anxiety, and stress—typical conditions for hysterical contagion.
Mass psychogenic effects have historical precedence. The notorious "dancing plague" of 1518 in Strasbourg began with a single woman dancing incessantly. Within weeks, hundreds followed. Local officials, believing victims could "dance away their mania," hired musicians and set up a large stage, inadvertently attracting more participants. At its peak, 15 individuals reportedly died daily, continuing until the phenomenon suddenly ceased.
Positive Feedback Loops and Social Contagion
In their nascent stages, infectious diseases often spread via a mechanism called a positive feedback loop. This entails a response trigger that amplifies the original signal through a series of responses. For epidemics, infected individuals contact susceptible people, who, in turn, infect more, perpetuating the cycle.
Similar dynamics are at play in social epidemics, where emotions, not physical entities, spread the "illness". The same mathematical principles explaining infectious disease outbreaks apply to the viral spread of ideas. Illnesses rooted in ideas or emotions are as tangible to affected communities as those caused by microbes.
Scientists have hypothesized that a wide range of social behaviors—generosity, violence, kindness, unemployment—are socially contagious. Some even suggest that traditionally non-communicable ailments, like obesity, may have social components enabling them to spread contagiously. The debate continues on whether phenomena like teen pregnancy are genuinely socially contagious.
Positive feedback loops magnify initially minor quantities into significant outcomes, akin to a snowball effect. A small snowball, descending a slope, accumulates snow, growing larger and faster—a phenomenon reflected in social contagion's potential impact.
Such dynamics might explain Heathrow's disruption, starting with one individual's illness that possibly "snowballed." Out of 21 individuals assessed by ambulance staff, only one required further treatment. The Metropolitan Police referenced the positive feedback terminology, suggesting the incident began with a single person falling ill and subsequently amplifying.
While the Heathrow situation was swiftly resolved, the spread of ideas —especially misinformation— is more challenging to curb. Overvaluing an idea's reach, endurance, or appeal can skew our judgment on events. The rampant dissemination of falsehoods during the COVID pandemic illustrates the harm of misleading ideas—downplaying vaccine efficacy, exaggerating COVID-19 risks, and advocating unproven remedies. Through social media, such misinformation spreads rapidly and widely, complicating efforts to counter it. We ignore the snowballing of these damaging myths at our peril.
(Only the headline of this report may have been reworked by Editorji; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
