Understanding Mass Panic

Abstract

Mass panics can arise in response to a variety of situations, such as the spread of pathogens, bank failures, or insecurities about economic supplies. Such panics can produce contagious behaviors such as fleeing social contacts, bank withdrawals, and panic buying. In such situations, the processing of external stimuli, mediated by the perceptions and biases of the individual, can reach a threshold point at which panic behaviors are triggered. Due to the human propensity to imitate the behavior of others in uncertain crisis situations, one individual’s panic behavior can spread contagiously. This paper looks at the similarities among case studies of mass panic around the world and from these cases synthesizes a conceptual model to aid our understanding. Decision-makers can use this model to strengthen national resilience against panic-generated behaviors and ensure an orderly and successful public response to future biological, financial, or economic crises.