This article is devoted to study which conditions imply that a topological dynamical system is mean sensitive and which do not. Among other things we show that every uniquely ergodic, mixing system with positive entropy is mean sensitive. On the other hand we provide an example of a transitive system which is cofinitely sensitive or Devaney chaotic with positive entropy but fails to be mean sensitive.As applications of our theory and examples, we negatively answer an open question regarding equicontinuity/sensitivity dichotomies raised by Tu, we introduce and present results of locally mean equicontinuous systems and we show that mean sensitivity of the induced hyperspace does not imply that of the phase space.2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 54H20, 37B10, 54B20, 37B05.