Collective delusions: a skeptic's guide

Collective delusions are an important topic for skeptics to address as they have the potential to influence millions of people.

The word delusion is used by psychiatrists to describe a persistent pathological belief associated with serious mental disturbance, usually psychosis. Sociologists and social psychologists use the term collective delusion, or mass delusion, in a different sense, to describe the spontaneous, temporary spread of false beliefs within a given population. Excluded from this definition are mistaken beliefs that occur in an organized or ritualistic manner. This term is also a common source of confusion since it is often used as a "catchall" category to describe a variety of different behaviors under one convenient heading. There are four common types of collective delusions: immediate community threats, community flight panics, symbolic community scares, and collective wish-fulfillment. Being familiar with the processes involved in each, and recognizing their features, is the first line of defense to counteract their influence.

Mass delusions differ from prominent religious myths and popular folk beliefs in that they occur in an unorganized, spontaneous fashion, although they may become institutionalized. Examples of institutionalization include the incorporation of claims of widespread satanic-cult sacrifices into the teachings of church groups, or the formation of organizations intended to confirm the existence of alien visitors or Bigfoot.

History is replete with examples of group delusions, many of which may seem humorous to those outside the historical or cultural setting. For instance, in 1806 near Leeds, England, residents became terror-stricken, believing that the end of the world was imminent after a hen began laying eggs with the inscription "Christ is Coming." Masses thronged to glimpse the miraculous bird - until it was discovered that the eggs had been inscribed with a corrosive ink and forced back into its body. This is one of many examples from Charles Mackay's classic, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1852). Unfortunately, the outcomes are often more sinister: Nazism, mass suicide, moral "witch-hunts," real witch-hunts, communist infiltration scares, the Crusades, and unfounded fears about the casual transmission of AIDS, to name but a few.

While historical episodes of collective folly are legendary, modern occurrences are remarkably similar. The four broad categories to be surveyed all involve a rapid spread of false, but plausible, exaggerated beliefs that gain credibility within a particular social and cultural context. They can be positive and take the form of wish-fulfillment, but are usually negative and spread by fear. Rumors are an essential ingredient common to each category of delusion. As persons attempt to confirm or dismiss the accuracy of these unsubstantiated stories of perceived importance, everyday objects, events, and circumstances that would ordinarily receive scant attention become the subject of extraordinary scrutiny. Ambiguous agents are soon redefined according to the emerging definition of the situation, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many factors contribute to the spread of episodes: the mass media, low education levels, the fallibility of human perception, cultural superstitions and stereotypes, group conformity, and reinforcing actions by authority figures, such as politicians, or institutions of social control, such as military agencies.

Immediate Community Threats

These collective delusions involve exaggerated feelings of danger within communities at large, where members of the affected population are concerned over what is believed to be an immediate personal threat. Episodes usually persist from a few weeks to several months and often recur periodically. Participants may express excitement and concern, but they don't panic and take flight. The underlying causes of fantasy creation and spread are the fallibility of human perception and the tendency for persons sharing similar beliefs in group settings to yield to the majority consensus.

An example of an immediate community threat occurred in Sweden during 1946, when there were mass sightings of imaginary rockets flying across the sky. In conjunction with rare cometary debris entering the atmosphere, rumors were circulating that remote-controlled German V-rockets, confiscated by the Soviets at the close of World War II, were being test-fired as a form of political intimidation or a prelude to an invasion. The historical and political contexts were key factors in rendering the rumors plausible, as the episode occurred amid a long history of mistrust of the Soviets, including invasion fears, border disputes, and spy scandals, which had long preoccupied the Swedes for centuries. Public statements reinforcing the existence of the rockets were made by top Swedish military officials, politicians, scientists, police, and journalists. Convinced of their existence, many citizens began redefining cometary spray that was sporadically streaking across the sky as enemy rockets. Some even claimed to distinguish tail fins or a fuselage. Of 997 reports investigated by the Swedish military, including nearly 100 "crashes" in remote areas, not a single shred of evidence confirming their existence was found, despite the military's extreme measure of draining some lakes to search for evidence (Bartholomew 1993).