About 61 years ago, a curious epidemic swept the village of Kashasha in what was then Tanganyika (today Tanzania). Three young people from a local boarding school began to laugh uncontrollably and incessantly, prompting other people to laugh too, in what became known as the “laughter epidemic”.

Laughter epidemic — Photo: Freepik

The hysteria began in 1962. After spreading throughout the boarding school affecting 95 of 159 young people aged 12 to 18, classes were suspended on March 18 to contain the spread of something that until then had been inexplicable. Another 14 schools in the region were also affected and temporarily closed.

The only problem was that when the girls left the boarding schools, the symptoms were transferred to the neighboring towns where they lived. The situation got out of control and in two and a half months infected at least a thousand people. At that time, the “epidemic of laughter” primarily affected women.

Symptoms

The most commonly reported symptoms, other than laughter, were pain, fainting, breathing problems, bouts of crying, and a rash. An epidemic lasting from a few minutes to days, followed by a break before a new beginning, made it difficult to perform normal tasks.

In an interview with NDTV Record TV’s Ver Mais, psychiatrist and author of O Lado Bom do Lado Ruim, Daniel Martins de Barros, reports that the epidemic at the time was not a contagious disease from a physical point of view. vision, but a demonstration of how laughter has a very high contagious power.

“Laughter is programmed to be contagious, we have a laughter center in our brain that, upon detecting one, triggers another,” he explains.

The medical causes of this epidemic have never been found, and it is now considered a case of mass psychogenic illness or mass hysteria.

Charles F. Hempelmann of Purdue University suggested that the epidemic was caused by stress due to the newfound independence of Tanganyika and the high expectations of teachers and parents of students overloading the nervous system.

In the words of Daniel de Barros, “It is a disease because there is a loss of control over behavior – in this case, laughter, because the origin of the disease is psychological, not organic.”

Although the collective hysteria did not leave any consequences, it demonstrated the contagious power of laughter and that in some cases it may not be the solution to all problems.