Anatomy of a Mass Panic

In what some have labeled as mass hysteria, nearly 150 pilgrims to a mountain temple in India perished Sunday in a stampede that local officials say was triggered by rumors of a landslide. There was no landslide, but one expert was quick to caution that the incident should not simply be written off as an instance of mass hysteria. "What would be one person's hysteria is another person's genuine belief," said Anthony Mawson, an epidemiologist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in...Full Story