On 8 February 1962 a notable episode of contagious laughter began at a girls' boarding school in the United Kingdom. The event involved multiple pupils and some staff members experiencing episodes of involuntary laughter that persisted for hours or days and, in some accounts, spread through parts of the school community. Contemporary and subsequent researchers have most often treated the incident as an instance of mass psychogenic illness (MPI), sometimes called mass hysteria, rather than as an infectious disease. Background The episode occurred in a mid-20th-century British boarding-school setting, where students lived and studied in close quarters. Such institutions have occasionally provided conditions—high social cohesion, stress, separation from family—that can facilitate rapid spread of behaviors or symptoms through social contagion. The 1962 laughter incidents attracted attention because the symptom (prolonged, involuntary laughter) was unusual compared with more commonly reported MPI symptoms like fainting, crying, or nausea. Course of events Sources differ on precise timelines and participant counts; some accounts describe an initial case that triggered laughter in classmates, followed by secondary cases over hours or days. Reports indicate the laughter varied in intensity and duration: some individuals experienced brief fits, while others had repeated episodes over a longer period. School staff reportedly attempted to manage disruptions, but the behavior circulated within peer groups and reportedly affected classroom activities and the daily routine. Interpretation and later analysis Medical and social-scientific responses in the decades after 1962 have generally framed the episode as mass psychogenic illness, a phenomenon in which psychological distress manifests as physical or behavioral symptoms that spread through social networks without an identifiable organic cause. Analysts emphasize contextual factors—stress from examinations or boarding-school life, social dynamics among pupils, and suggestibility—as likely contributors. Some commentators have stressed that labeling such events as 'hysteria' risks dismissing participants' real distress; modern scholarship tends to use MPI as a more neutral term and to consider both psychological and social drivers. Sources and uncertainties Primary contemporary documentation of this specific February 8 incident is limited in scope and varies in detail. Much of the academic discussion relies on retrospective case studies and comparative analyses of similar episodes of collective behavioral disturbance. Because eyewitness reports and secondary accounts diverge on participant numbers, symptom duration, and exact chronology, some details remain uncertain. No credible evidence indicates an infectious or neurological pathogen caused the laughter; instead, the balance of scholarly commentary supports a psychosocial explanation. Significance The 1962 boarding-school episode is notable in histories of mass psychogenic illness for the unusual dominant symptom—contagious laughter—and for highlighting how social environments can amplify atypical behaviors. It has been referenced in broader examinations of collective behavior, medical sociology, and the history of psychiatric and public-health responses to nonorganic outbreaks. Understanding such episodes emphasizes the importance of sensitive, evidence-based responses that address both immediate management and underlying social or psychological stressors.