Mass hysteria

As defined by Abby McPhail, mass hysteria was "a shared madness". Oliver Morgenstern added that the term was used to describe events where "an idea [could] spread like a virus".

Morgenstern researched a number of events which he believed to be examples of mass hysteria. In North Carolina in 2002, a group of cheerleaders all suffered identical seizures with no obvious physiological cause. In Portugal in 2006, girls started experiencing symptoms of a fictional virus they’d seen in a teen soap.

The temporary disappearance of the Royal Hope Hospital in 2008 was attributed to being a case of mass hysteria, even by those who were inside the hospital, such as Oliver Morgenstern. (AUDIO: Hysteria) In reality, the disappearance of the hospital was caused by the Judoon transporting it to the Moon via a H₂O scoop. (TV: Smith and Jones)

Some claimed that the Bubble Shock! incident was the result of mass hysteria caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. (TV: Invasion of the Bane)

When residents of Lavender Lawns claimed that they had seen the ghost of a nun, Sylvia Gribbins put the claims down to hysteria. (TV: Eye of the Gorgon)

"One of the old dears has a nightmare, she tells her friend she's seen a ghost, then, next thing, what do you know? They've all seen one. It's hysteria, Miss Smith. It's as simple as that."

- Sylvia Gribbins describes hysteria.

The BBC News website claimed that the huge fireball over Cardiff caused mass hysteria. They used the headline "Cardiff Mass Hysteria". (TV: The New World)