In 1954, a few people in the town of Bellingham, Wash., reported seeing pits and dings on their windshields — perhaps the work of vandals. Roadblocks were quickly set up. This became front-page news in nearby Seattle, prompting people to rush to check their own windshields. Thousands then reported that they, too, had mysterious dings, in an ever-widening area from Seattle to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Panic quickly spread. People speculated that the cause might be cosmic rays, a radio transmitter in a nearby naval base, fallout from H-bomb tests or sand-flea eggs hatching in windshields. The mayor of Seattle begged for help from the governor and the White House. Motorists began stopping police cars to add their name to the list of the affected. Scientists were called in, Geiger counters whipped out.

The mysterious windshield pits of 1954 turned out not to be the result of vandals, aliens, radioactivity or sand fleas, but were instead the domain of mass human psychology. Examinations revealed that these were mundane, long-present imperfections, everyday wear and tear. It’s just that no one had bothered to notice them before, because who studies his windshield that closely?

A similar dynamic is playing out right now under the New Jersey sky. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of drone sightings have sent people in the area and far beyond into a state of high alarm.

The weak and ineffective response of government authorities should serve as a lesson in exactly how not to handle such incidents in the digital age.

Frustrated by a lack of clear information, citizen sleuths have been pointing lasers at unidentified objects in the sky, something the F.B.I. has taken to begging people not to do. Joe Rogan amplified a theory that it all had something to do with a radioactive leak. Senator Charles Schumer said new technology was needed to help local law enforcement find out “what the heck is going on.”