The crazy part is that even smart, well-educated people were falling for the media hype. My mother-in-law was one of those. She has a masters degree (MBA or Masters in Finance, can't remember), used to run the finances for Shop-Ko, and now teaches finance and accounting at college -- yet she was completely freaking out about the downturn of her retirement accounts. My wife and I were telling her that she hasn't lost ANYTHING yet -- she has the same number of shares as she did before the downturn -- and she knew that in her head, but all the fear and doom in the media was just making her a basket case because she "lost" 70% of her portfolio (or whatever the number was).
I have no idea if she sold at the bottom. I hope her brain won out over her feelings...