A reference to anthropological studies of primates and humans that show their genetic predisposition to follow the crowd, particularly when in an excited emotional state. The actions observed when FOMO and herd mentality kick in, the brain disengages from logical reasoning and degens recklessly throw money at any Ponzi simply because everybody else is doing it.

A pump and dump is a typical scam in the crypto/ NFT world. An asset is hyped up to a fever pitch. Influencers are screaming about it and the FOMO kicks in. The community buy in, raising or pumping the price. When the price rises to a determined height, the original pumpers dump the asset and leave the unsuspecting public holding the now worthless bags.