COGNITIVE EXPLOITS
We humans imitate social behaviors and much imitated behavior is not learned but adopted unconsciously. Wittgenstein's students (according to Karl Popper) imitated his characteristic mannerisms of his and even after his death, the students of his students, who’d never met the philosopher, were still imitating and transmitting his mannerisms to succeeding generations.
Social imitation is morally agnostic, imitated behavior can be a harmless mannerism or dangerous, irrational, genocidal or self-destructive worldview. Contagious self-replicating psychogenic illness can be trivially induced by common IW tactics.
Latahism is usually described as a Malaysian "culture bound" phenomena. Some social scientist believe imitative behaviors in latahs are related to the "startle response" as seen in Tourette's syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Lawrence Osborne wrote in the New York Times magazine, “The startle reflex is a universal one. When we are jolted by surprise, we tend to scream, shout obscenities or make involuntary gestures. And some of us are a lot jumpier than others. But with latahs, as sufferers are known, these reactions become prolonged to an extreme degree. In Malay village life, people who are susceptible to such exaggerated reactions are deliberately provoked further – through furtive pokes in the ribs or tin pots thrown behind their backs – to induce a frenzied startle-trance. Over time, latahs become so sensitive that trances can be triggered by a falling coconut. [Source: Lawrence Osborne, New York Times magazine, May 6, 2001 ++]
While in the induced trance state, latah are extremely receptive to and obedient to suggestion. They will carry out complex tasks if so instructed.
Stress induced:
“Across the river from the town center lies the sprawling suburb of Petra Jaya. Here, Iban and Dyak villages have begun sprouted up among the posh houses of Muslim ministers and Chinese businessmen, creating an incongruous patchwork of marble villas and wooden shacks. In this neighborhood, a pair of old ladies have become known in the markets of Kuching for their latah antics. One of them is Serai, a frail 75-year-old. She welcomes me inside her son-in-law's house, with its sweltering front room of gaudy pink couches. Thirty-five years ago, Serai explains, she was invited to join a wood chopping team of women in the forests outside Kuching. The work was arduous, and the other women constantly TEASED AND TORMENTED their inexperienced companion. "They poked and poked me," she recalls a little mournfully, "and I became latah."
“How can latah consistently strike two people at the exact same moment? It seems that Serai and Amin must have some control, even if they are unable to acknowledge it, over their affliction. And if they can remember what happens to them while in a trance state, then is it really latah? Is Michael Kenny right – that latah is more of a ritual than an illness?
Loud noises trigger the phenomena in a way similar to "shock induction" a mass hypnosis technique that exploits the extreme susceptibility to hypnotic suggestion in the immediate wake of a collectively traumatic event such as 9/11.