panic

an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events

"panic in the stock market"

"a war scare"

"a bomb scare led them to evacuate the building" be overcome by a sudden fear

"The students panicked when told that final exams were less than a week away" cause sudden fear in or fill with sudden panic

"The mere thought of an isolation cell panicked the prisoners"

otheruses Panic is a sudden fear which dominates thinking and often affects groups of people or animals. Panics typically occur in disaster situations, and may endanger the overall health of the affected group. The word ''panic'' derives from the name of the Greek Deitygod Pan (mythology)Pan, who strikes fear into the enemies of His subjects.Human evolution#Before HomoPrehistoric man used mass panic as a weapon when hunting animals, especially ruminants. Herds scared by unusually strong sound and visual effects were directed towards cliffs, where they eventually jumped to their death when cornered.Humans are also vulnerable to panic and it is often considered infectious, in the sense one person's panic may easily spread to other people nearby and the entire mass of humanity will soon start to act Irrationalityirrationally. But people also have the ability to prevent and/or control their own and other's panic by way of thinking and practice drills. Architects and city planners try to accommodate the symptoms of panic, such as herd behavior, during design and planning, often using simulations to determine the best way to lead people to a safe exit and prevent congestion (stampedes). The most effective methods are often un-intuitive. A column, approximately 1 ft in diameter, placed in front of the door exit at a precisely calculated distance, may speed up the evacuation of a large room by up to 30%, as the obstacle divides the congestion well ahead of the choke point.In sociology, precipitate and irrational actions of a group are often referred to as panics (e.g., "sex panic", "stock market panic"), see also hysteria. Panic is usually understood to mean active, but senseless behaviour (e.g. trying to flee in a random direction or suddenly attacking others without consideration), while hysteria often carries a more passive notion (as in crying uncontrollably). An influential theoretical treatment of panic by a sociologist is found in Neil J.Smelser, ''Theory of Collective Behavior''.The science of panic management has found important practical applications in the armed forces and emergency services of the world.Many highly publicized cases of deadly panic occurred during massive public events.The layout of Mecca has recently been extensively redesigned and overhauled by Saudi authorities in an attempt to eliminate frequent stampedes, which had left an average of 250 pilgrims dead every year.Soccer stadiums in have seen deadly crowd rushes and stampedes, such as that at Hillsborough disasterHillsborough stadium in Sheffield, England, in 1989. This led to mandatory use of controlled entry gates and stricter rules were imposed by the end of the 1980s to regulate seating arrangements.

Panic and the law - Most jurisdictions limit the freedom of speech in order to deter people from creating potentially dangerous panic situations, especially a false alarm (the classic example is yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre when in fact nothing is burning).Some criminals have been trying to evade or reduce the severity of their conviction by claiming their violence was induced by a sense of panic. Certain jurisdiction may limit punishment in case one's actions for self-defenseself-defence were excessively powerful because of panic reaction.Panic experienced by air travellers during the last minutes of their lives aboard crashing commercial flights has been the basis of several multi-million dollar lawsuits brought against airlines, based on the legal concept of emotional suffering.

See also -

Panic attack

Anxiety

Hysteria

Angst

Fear

Emotion

Collective behavior

External links - wiktionaryparpanic

asktog.com - Panic! How it works and What To Do About It — by Bruce Tognazzini.

contextsmagazine.org - Panic: Myth or Reality? — Lee Clark, Contexts Magazine.

schneier.com - Bruce Schneier on the Myth of !PanicCategory:Emotionde:Panike s:Pánicofr:Peur? !paniquehu:Pánikio:Panikoja:&# 12497;ニック

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