The New Jersey Drones Mass Delusion, Explained

Dear reader from the future: this cultural episode will have been largely forgotten by the time you read this. But in late 2024, "Mysterious New Jersey Drones" coverage could not be escaped. This is a characteristic of mass delusions. Explosive media penetration for a hot minute, then erased from the collective memory.

It's instructive to not let it fade from consciousness. The good people at the What a Day podcast's occasional series, "How We Got Here" took a deep dive into this flash in the media pan. 

And I have questions.

THE NEW JERSEY DRONES MASS DELUSION, EXPLAINED at TPT

Something mysterious has been going down in New Jersey recently … but it’s NOT drones. It’s that thousands of people are looking at airplanes in the night sky and thinking they see UFOs. What causes mass delusions like this wave of now mostly debunked drone sightings? In this concluding episode of "How We Got Here," Max and Erin share four stories of famous mass hysterias and talk to William Bernstein, an author who writes about the science of mass delusions and why they happen.

Key Sections:

• War of the Worlds
• The Delusion of Crowds
• Havana Syndrome
• Panic (Media Response in the Attention Economy)
• Evil Clowns
• Salem Witch Trials