The Invasion from Mars: A Study in the Psychology of Panic

by Hadley Cantril

On Halloween night 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation of the H. G. Wells fantasy, The War of the Worlds . What listeners heard sounded so realistic that at least a million were frightened by word that "strange creatures" from Mars had landed in central New Jersey and were "unleashing a deadly assault." Several thousand were so terrified they ran into the streets, drove away in their cars, or called the police for information about how to escape. Why did so many panic when the circumstances reported were so improbable? That is just the question Hadley Cantril, then a young social psychologist, set out to answer. Originally published in 1940, The Invasion from Mars remains a classic. The broadcast provided a unique real-life opportunity to explore why the relatively new medium of radio could have such an effect. Using a mix of research methods, Cantril shows that the impact of the broadcast had less to do with what went out over the air than with the "standards of judgment" people did or did not use in evaluating what they were hearing. This book is of continuing value to those interested in communications and mass behavior.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

Albert Hadley Cantril, Jr. was an American psychologist from the Princeton University, who expanded the scope of the field.

Reviews

[Carrie Poppy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Amazed someone was able to pull this all together so soon after the events. Highly recommend.

[hiba ☕︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my project and I love my degree. I love that it just reinforces everything that I hate about media. Anyways, we’re so desperate for books to add to my reading challenge that we are adding course material… look away.

[Jason Shaffner · Rating 4 out of 5]

In our modern era of fake news, this book provides a compelling reminder that this problem is not really new: many of the same factors that led listeners to believe martians were attacking us in 1938 ring true in 2017. "What is most inconceivable and therefore especially interesting psychologically is why so many people did not do something to verify the information they were receiving from their loudspeakers."

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Statistical and historical insight into the war of the worlds broadcast. Great use for my Senior Thesis.

[Paul Barta · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8/5: solid, if antiquated, study of an interesting subject

The War of the Worlds radio broadcast may have gotten the crap beaten out of it by Charlie McCarthy in the ratings, but it ended up beating the crap outta Charlie and his dumb puppets in the cultural zeitgeist. Bless this academic study of the response to Welles' broadcast with including the script itself in the first 50 pages. It's a fascinating, well-written read that did phenomenally well at mirroring the realism of a radio news broadcast from the time period, to the point of interrupting cutesy big bands in New York hotels. It's the precursor to stuff like found footage movies, mockumentaries, and contemporary media that still trips people up into thinking it's real to this day. You can feel yourself get a few goosebumps reading it. Just fantastic stuff.

The academic study following it, describing the psychological and sociological situations of the people who did (and did not!) freak out over Welles' broadcast, admittedly tries to take a very wide range in answering its questions. For a study from the 1930's/1940's, it's genuinely good at determining the root cause of panic in this situation (critical thinking!), though it can go a bit off the rails and subjective when discussing psychoanalytic things like Ego. The case studies are great most of the time, and awkwardly shoehorning only some of the time. The entire topic itself is interesting, and the panicked and nonpanicked are themselves great characters. Ms. Dean is a great precursor to the villain lady from The Mist, while that one 70mph-driving 20 year old is a great precursor to every finance bro with a trust fund you've ever met.

[John Badger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting study, could have been condensed, not brilliant analysis but that’s psychology in general

[Wil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little more analytical that I usually like to read, what's fascinating is the "of the moment" interviews with people who panicked. That part gets the four star treatment.