FACT FOCUS: Unfounded theory used to dismiss COVID measures

Millions of people have been hypnotized into believing mainstream ideas about COVID-19, including steps to combat it, according to an online theory.

Efforts to combat the disease have been dismissed with just three words: mass formation psychosis.

A person who is not a scientist but is pretty sure healthy people spending hours in line to get a virus test is mass psychosis formation in action wrote a message that was liked more than 22,000 times.

The term gained attention after being floated by Dr. Robert Malone. A scientist who once researched the use of mRNA technology is now a critic of the COVID-19 vaccines.

According to psychology experts, the concept described by Malone is similar to theories that have been discredited. Here is a look at the facts.

Millions of people trust the safety and efficacy of the vaccines because of the concept of mass formation psychosis.

The false theory was highlighted on a show hosted by Joe Rogan. According to mainstream news outlets, the mass psychosis has resulted in a third of the population being hypnotized into believing what Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, says.

The phenomenon explained Nazi Germany, according to Malone.

When a society is decoupled from each other and has free-floating anxiety in a sense that things don't make sense, we can't understand it, and then their attention gets focused by a leader or a series of events on one small point. He claimed that people will not allow the narrative to be questioned.

In a December post, he said that the mass hypnosis explains millions of people becoming fascinated by the main narrative about the safety and effectiveness of the genetic vaccines.

The psychologists say there is no support for the theory.

Jay Van Bavel, an assistant professor of psychology and neural science at New York University who co-authored a book on group identities, said there was no evidence for the concept. Van Bavel could not find the phrase "mass formation psychosis" in any peer-reviewed literature.

Stephen Reicher, a social psychology professor at the University of St Andrew's in the U.K., wrote in an email to The Associated Press that the concept has no academic credibility.

The American Psychological Association's Dictionary of Psychology does not include the term.

There are conditions that involve some separation from reality. 3% of people experience some form of psychosis at some point in their lives according to the National Institutes of Health.

The professor of clinical psychology at Harvard wrote in an email that people who support public health guidance are not delusional. They are fully responsive to the arguments and evidence adduced by the relevant scientific experts.

The COVID-19 vaccines have been found to be safe and effective by health officials.

According to John Drury, a social psychologist at the University of Sussex in the U.K. who studies collective behavior, the description of mass formation psychosis by Malone resembles discredited concepts such as mob mentality and group mind. He said in an email that the ideas suggest that when people form part of a psychological crowd they lose their identities and self-control.

The notion of crowd behavior has been discredited by decades of research. He said that no respectable psychologist agrees with these ideas now.

Multiple experts told the AP that while there is evidence that groups can influence one's behavior, and that people can and do believe false statements, those concepts don't involve the mass of people experiencing "psychosis" or "hypnosis."

Steven Jay Lynn, a psychology professor at the University of New York, said that the myth about hypnotism is based on a misconception.

Lynn said that the claim was a serious misunderstanding of hypnotism and that it was a popular misconception that people who are hypnotized are transformed into mindless robots who think what the hypnotist wants them to think. People can easily resist and even oppose suggestions.

The concept of mass psychosis formation had been online in recent months.

The professor who was cited for formulating the idea did not return requests for comment. A request for comment was not returned.

_

Fichera was from Philadelphia and Kelety was from Phoenix.

_

AP is working with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. You can learn more about fact-checking at AP.