Most residents living in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington are probably unaware that each year since the late 1950s, they have been the subjects of discussion by sociologists and psychologists who teach courses in collective behavior and social psychology. Why?
It is because of an episode that affected the region back in 1954, and is widely referred to by social scientists as "the Seattle windshield pitting epidemic." The incident is a classic example of a mass or social delusion. It is unfortunate that such events are sometimes labeled as an example of "mass hysteria." Most social scientists of today prefer the term social delusion and are hesitant to use the word "hysteria" as most participants in episodes are certainly not hysterical in the clinical sense. (Hysteria is a serious nervous system disturbance that is typified by emotional excitability and sensory disturbances.)
Also, use of the term "hysteria" can be viewed as offensive to females. This is because over the past two centuries, many scientists have improperly labeled a variety of female behaviors as "hysterical." Although this view has changed among most scientists in recent decades, it remains a sensitive issue.
Having said this, the term "mass hysteria" remains popular in the mass media and among the public to describe exaggerated community responses to various imaginary threats. This woudl include such incidents as the villianization of scores of innocent citizens of Wenatchee, Washington as sex criminals as documented in Kathryn Lyon's excellent book, Witch Hunt (1998), and is not likely to be replaced in the foreseeable future by less dramatic terms such as mass or social delusion. For examples of "true" mass hysteria involving the rapid spread of hysterical symptoms in group settings, see Wessely (1987), Bartholomew and Sirois (1996), and Boss (1997).
The episode of phantom windshield pitting began on March 23, 1954, when press accounts began to appear in newspapers in Seattle. The stories reported damage to automobile windshields in a city 80 miles to the north. Police initially suspected vandals, but as the number of cases spread, it soon became evident that this was not a viable explanation. As the days passed, reports of damaged windshields moved closer to Seattle. By nightfall on April 14th when the mysterious agent had first reached the city, until April 15th, police had logged 242 telephone calls from concerned residents across Seattle, telling of tiny pit marks on vehicles numbering over 3,000. In some cases, entire parking lots were reported to have been struck.
The most common report of damage involved claimes by astonished witnesses that tiny pit marks grew into dime-sized bubbles that were embedded inside the glass, leading to speculation in some quarters that the culprit was sandflea eggs that had somehow been deposited in the glass and later hatched.
The reports quickly declined and ceased altogether. On April 16th police logged 46 pitting complaints, and 10 on the 17th, but after that date, not a single further report was received. The event was over. The sudden presence of the "pits" created widespread anxiety as they were typically attributed to atomic fallout from hydrogen bomb tests that had been recently conducted in the Pacific and received saturation media publicity. At the height of the incident on the night of April 15th, the Seattle mayor even sought help from United States President Dwight Eisenhower.
However, an investigation by Nahum Z. Medalia of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Otto N. Larsen of the University of Washington (1958) determined that the pits had always existed and resulted from mundane events such as ordinary road wear, but had gone unnoticed. In the wak of rumors such as the presence of harmful fallout, and spurred by a few initial cases amplified by the news media, residents began looking at instead of through, their windshields.
During the episode, the Governor contacted the Environmental Research Laboratory at the University of Washington to analyze the reports. They reported that the mysterious black, sooty grains found on many windshields were cenospheres - tiny particles produced by the incomplete combustion of bituminous coal. Such particles, it was noted, had been common in Seattle for many years, and could not pit or penetrate windshields (Bovee, 1954).
The literature on mass or collective delusions indicates the pivotal role of several key factors. These include the presence of ambiguity, anxiety, the spread of rumors and false but plausible beliefs, and a redefinition of the potential threat from general and distant to specific and imminent. Exacerbating factors include human perceptual fallibility, mass media influence in spreading the fears, recent geo-political events, and reinforcement of the false belief by authority figures and those in institutions of social control (for example, the police, military, a university lecturer or the head of the Washington Skeptics).
In their conclusions, Medalia and Larsen note at least two other possible functions of the pitting delusion. Firstly, as the pitting reports coincided with the H-Bomb tests, the media publicity seems to have reduced tension aout the inevitable dire consequences of the bomb tests - "something was bound to happen to us as a result of the H-Bomb tests - windshields became pitted - it's happened - now that thread is over" (p.186).
Secondly, the very act of telephoning police and appeals by the Mayor to the Governor and even President of the United States, "served to give people the sense that they were 'doing something' about the danger that threatened" (p. 186).
The Seattle windshield pitting epidemic is just one in a long list of mass delusions that have occurred in the United States during the twentieth century. Other examples include the 'Jersey Devil' (1909), Martian invasion panic (1938), mad gasser of Mattoon, Illinois (1944), flying saucer sightings (since 1947), the Virgin Mary at Saba Grande (1953), and rumors and persecutions surrounding the existence of a widespread network of Satanic cult and child molestation groups that have become prominent since the 1980s (see Bartholomew 1997, 1998 in press).
As we approach the twenty-first century, humanity seems to be growing ever more reliant on various forms of mass communiciations for accurate, instant information. Despite continuous advancements in science and technology since the Age of Enlightenment, in the present climate, we may actually be growing more, not less vulnerable, to mass delusions.
References
Bartholomew, Robert E. (1998). "The Martian Panic Sixty Years Later: What have we learned?" Skeptical Inquirer 22 (November-December)
Bartholomew, Robert E. (1997). "Collective delusions: a skeptic's guide." Skeptical Inquirer 21:29-33.
Bartholomew, Robert E., and Francois Sirois (1996). "Epidemic hysteria in schools: an international and historical overview." Educational Studies 22(3):285-311.
Boss, Leslie P. (1997). "Epidemic hysteria: a review of the published literature." Epidemiological Reviews 19:233-43.
Bovee, Harley H. (1954). "Report on the 1954 windshield pitting phenomena in the State of Washington." Mimeographed: Environmental Research Laboratory: University of Washington (June 10).
Lyon, Kathryn. (1998) Witch hunt: a true story of social hysteria and abused justice. New York: Avon Books.
Medalia, Nahun Z, Larsen, Otto N. (1958). "Diffusion and belief in a collective delusion." American Sociological Review 23:180-186.
Wessely, Simon. (1987). "Mass hysteria: two syndromes?" Psychological Medicine, 17:109-120.