Was the public hypnotized in order to accept COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: Psychologists say there is no such thing as "mass formation psychosis," which, according to a claim circulating on social media, would have induced people to blindly follow COVID-19 measures. The alleged theory according to which masses have been hypnotized in order to receive COVID jabs during the coronavirus pandemic is unfounded.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted on TikTok by @paralelne.cz on September 1, 2023, without a title. It stated:
Professor Desmet says 30 percent of people have been deeply hypnotized and have irrationally accepted experimental injections as a solution.
(Translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff).
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Sep 5 14:57:52 2023 UTC)
The video draws on the work of Belgian Professor Mattias Desmet of the University of Ghent, who applied the alleged "mass formation psychosis" theory to his observation of the social response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He published his hypothesis in a 2022 book titled The Psychology of Totalitarianism.
The University of Ghent decided against using the book for teaching purposes after Desmet was discredited for some controversial statements he made during interviews in 2022 with former Fox News commentator and TV show host Tucker Carlson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
In a September 2, 2022, interview with Alex Jones on Infowars, Desmet claimed, for example, that he had witnessed open-heart surgery being performed under hypnosis and without anesthesia in a Belgian hospital. It turned out to be a lie and the University of Ghent distanced itself from the claim, as rector Rik Van de Walle told VRT, the national Flemish public broadcasting service in Belgium.
The term "mass formation psychosis" only gained wide attention after Dr. Robert Malone referenced Desmet on a podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Joe Rogan, in December 2021. In that episode, The Joe Rogan Experience #1757, Malone questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and asserted that a mass delusion had led to about a third of the population "being hypnotized" in order to trust statements by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at that time, and by mainstream media outlets.
Malone was involved in the early stages of the research that later allowed the creation of mRNA vaccines, and has emerged as a prominent critic of the COVID-19 vaccines utilizing the technology. He was involved also in spreading misinformation about the vaccines' efficacy and safety.
Psychology experts have argued that Malone's allegations lack empirical backing and mirror theories that have previously been debunked.
"'Mass formation psychosis' is not an academic term recognized in the field of psychology, nor is there evidence of any such phenomenon occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic," reported Reuters after interviewing multiple experts in crowd psychology.
The phrase "mass formation psychosis" can't be found in the American Psychological Association (APA) Dictionary of Psychology, and the PsycNet database of published research articles doesn't list any scientific papers confirming this theory.
John Drury, a social psychologist at the University of Sussex, UK, who studies collective behavior, told the Associated Press that the description of "mass formation psychosis" offered by Malone resembles discredited concepts, such as "mob mentality" and "group mind."
The World Health Organization states that all vaccines approved by stringent regulatory agencies or under WHO Emergency Use Listing are safe and effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and death due to COVID-19 infection.
Misinformation surrounding the mass psychosis theory has also appeared on the pages of Czech conspiracy websites InfoVojna and Otevrisvoumysl.cz (with a video that has been used also in the above TikTok post), and on other TikTok accounts.
Other fact checks by Lead Stories on COVID-19 vaccines can be found here.
