title: The social psychology of 'epidemic' koro.
abstract: The few isolated reports of individual koro exhibit a symptomatology indicative of major psychiatric conditions (ie. psychosis or affective disorder), and appear unrelated to collective episodes which involve social, cultural, cognitive and physiological factors in the diffusion of koro-related beliefs. Yet, koro 'epidemics' continue to be viewed as exemplifying mass psychopathology or irrationality. An examination of the similarities between koro 'outbreaks' and a sub-category of behaviour which has been loosely labeled as 'mass hysteria', suggests an alternative, non-psychopathological explanation. In reclassifying 'epidemic' koro as a collective misperception rather than a culture-bound syndrome, it is argued that koro is a rational attempt at problem-solving which involves conformity dynamics, perceptual fallibility and the local acceptance of koro-associated folk realities, which are capable of explaining such episodes as normal within any given population.
authors.affiliation: Flinders University of South Australia.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Bartholomew
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003469:Culture; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000145:classification; D006801:Humans; D016911:Koro / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008399:Mass Behavior