• 52 | The Town That Went Insane (The Power of Mass Hysteria and Groupthink)

  • Feb 27 2025
  • Length: 7 mins
  • Podcast

52 | The Town That Went Insane (The Power of Mass Hysteria and Groupthink)

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  • Summary

  • It started with one person.

    Then five.

    Then twenty.

    Within days, over 400 people were dancing uncontrollably in the streets—some laughing, some screaming, some collapsing from exhaustion. Some danced until they died.

    This isn’t a myth. This actually happened in 1518 in Strasbourg, France. A real event, with no clear explanation. Was it a disease? A curse? Or something even scarier—mass hysteria?

    This episode dives into how the human brain can be hijacked by the crowd, why people lose control without realizing it, and how this same phenomenon is still happening today.

    What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

    🔥 The insane true story of the Dancing Plague of 1518—how an entire town lost control

    🔥 How mass hysteria works—why people start believing and doing things that make no sense

    🔥 The psychology of groupthink—why we follow the crowd, even when it’s leading us off a cliff

    🔥 How social media, news cycles, and trends are hijacking your brain the same way

    🔥 A challenge to recognize when you’re being swept up in the madness—and take back control

    Most people don’t realize when they’re dancing. The only way to stay in control… is to stop moving with the crowd.
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