Hysteria (Score 2)

Mass hysteria is most common in schoolgirls, especially in strict environments. Reports of incidents go back hundreds of years occurring in many countries, 12 schoolgirls in LeRoy New York last December, 85 schoolgirls in a school in Blackburn, England in 1965, 600 schoolgirls in Girls Town school in Mexico in 2006, etc, etc. One clue in Afghanistan is that the teachers don't get sick. There are other forms of mass hysteria, including contagious laughter and dancing, (Eijanaika in Japan)... In Nigeria, Congo, Thailand and Singapore there have been outbreaks of penis theft mass hysteria, where adult men believe they have been robbed of their pride and joy by magic. There are lots of articles about the phenomena and various books... Most striking here is that so many Slashdot readers just swallowed the story without thinking.