moral panic
Sign in to saveAlso known as moral panics
feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society
Key facts
- Author
- Stanley Cohen
- Published
- 1972 (1st ed., MacGibbon and Kee) 1980 (2nd ed., Basil Blackwood) 2002 (3rd ed., Routledge)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- fear
- Subclass of
- occurrence
- Image
- Zeitung Derenburg 1555 crop.jpg
- Participant
- Folk devil
Show 7 more facts
- partially coincident with
- sociogenic illness
- topic's main category
- Category:Moral panic
- Commons category
- Moral panic
- named by
- Stanley Cohen
- model item
- Satanic panic
- has effect
- social anxiety
- has characteristic
- distortion
Sources (6)
via Wikidata · CC0
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Witch-hunting is a historical example of mass behavior potentially fueled by moral panic. 1555 German print.
A moral panic, also called a social panic, is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually elicited by moral entrepreneurs and sensational mass media coverage, and exacerbated by politicians and lawmakers. Moral panic can give rise to new laws aimed at controlling the community.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “moral panic” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.