It's very tempting to be a layperson out of ones depth and apply MPI to a shit-tonne of things we're seeing. But I suspect the superficial "looks like it" of mass hysteria about things (pizzagate, drones, bank failures, Gamestop & cryptos in general) isn't actually the same as this.

I am also interested in how strongly real MPI aligns to "mostly women" because I don't want to believe there are these kinds of gendered differences in response to things, but the evidence looks to be there. It's unfortunate to get back to a somewhat paternalistic "victorian" sense of Hysteria as a fundamentally young female disease.

A very long time ago I was caught up in what was probably a mass psychogenic break out in primary school. It only takes a small trigger and suddenly the teachers are dealing with a shitload of vomit. There is a compounding quality that in sufficient volume, vomit is a bit of a chemical warfare agent but still: hell to pay and a lot of cleaning. The problem is that most of the good cleaning agents smell, and the smell is enough to trigger "GAS GAS GAS WE'RE BEING GASSED" panic attacks and there you are, back at the front door (I exaggerate, this was a small school and a handful of collapsed kids, but it does happen. Out of nowhere.)

I've also experienced (as a kid, and young adult) panic attacks and I know how very real central chest pain is, when you're caught up in your own imminent demise. On the plus side thats not a gendered problem: any and all young things including martians can get panic attacks.

This was a very interesting read.