collective fear
Shared group terror
Collective fear is anxiety or dread shared by a group, community, or society rather than felt by individuals alone.
It emerges when people face common threats—pandemics, economic collapse, war, or social upheaval: Collective fear of the virus kept streets empty for months.
The term appears in sociology and psychology to describe how fear spreads through populations and shapes group behavior, sometimes rationally, sometimes as panic or hysteria.
- panicUncontrollable sudden fear
- mass hysteriaShared irrational public fear
- hysteriaUncontrollable emotional excess
- moral panicIrrational collective fear wave
- mobDisorderly, aggressive crowd
mob mentality · contagion · viral spread · dread · terror · masses · paranoia · anxiety · herd · herd instinct · frenzy · fight or flight · alarm · phobia · stampede · unrest · red scare · plague
collective fearcollective security
Shared defense pact system
shared faith · public morale · national pride · community spirit · social stability
collective, collectively, collectivity, collectivism, collectivist, collect, collection, collector, collected