the.com/public panic
the moment a crowd's shared brain overrides everyone's individual one.
means a sudden, collective loss of rational behavior triggered by perceived danger, spreading faster than the danger itself.
from from greek pan, the god who caused sudden terror in flocks and travelers with an unseen noise in the woods; the word entered english meaning any groundless, contagious fear, later formalized in crowd psychology by gustave le bon in the 1890s.
deadlier than dangerstampede deaths often exceed those from the original threat.
radio proofwar of the worlds 1938 broadcast sparked real but overstated fear.
bottleneck physicsexits narrower than crowd flow cause most crush deaths.
rumor speedfalse alarms travel faster than official corrections, always.
for instance
hillsborough disaster — 1989 stadium crush killed 97 amid crowd surge and confusion.
black monday 1987 — stock market fell 22 percent in a single panicked day.
toilet paper shortage 2020 — covid hoarding emptied shelves despite ample actual supply.