Saturday, August 19, 2017

Scott Adams: How To Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble

Scott Adams: How To Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble

SCOTT ADAMS' BLOG

 How To Know You’re In a Mass Hysteria Bubble

 Posted August 17th, 2017 @ 12:36pm
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 A mass hysteria happens when the public gets a wrong idea about something that has strong emotional content and it triggers cognitive dissonance that is often supported by confirmation bias. In other words, people spontaneously hallucinate a whole new (and usually crazy-sounding) reality and believe they see plenty of evidence for it. The Salem Witch Trials are the best-known example of mass hysteria.
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 If you’re in the mass hysteria, recognizing you have all the symptoms of hysteria won’t help you be aware you are in it. 
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 But if you are not experiencing mass hysteria, you might be totally confused by the actions of the people who are. ... You can’t tell if they are stupid, unscrupulous, ignorant, mentally ill, emotionally unstable or what. 
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 One sign of a good mass hysteria is that it sounds bonkers to anyone who is not experiencing it.
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But when you start seeing ad hominem attacks that offer no reasons at all, that might be a sign that people in the mass hysteria bubble don’t understand what is wrong with your point of view except that it sounds more sensible than their own. 
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 The mass hysteria signals I described here are not settled science, or anything like it. This is only my take on the topic, based on personal observation and years of experience with hypnosis and other forms of persuasion.