Stanley Cohen showed how a small event can grow into a national moral crisis through media exaggeration, public fear, and official control measures.

Evidence

Moral Panic (Simply Psychology)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Folktales can escalate into moral panics in troubled times. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 77; Cohen (1972, p. 9) defined moral panic as a condition where a group emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests, presented in a stylized way by mass media. — Moral Panic; Moral panic is a widespread fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values of a community, first theorized by Stanley Cohen in 1972. — Moral panic — Wikipedia (+2 more)

Related

• Cohen (1972, p. 9) defined moral panic as a condition where a group emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests, presented in a stylized way by mass media. (similarity 0.91)
• Cohen documented moral panics as sudden threats or disorders involving mass hysteria, delusion, and panic. (similarity 0.86)
• Moral panic is a widespread fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values of a community, first theorized by Stanley Cohen in 1972. (similarity 0.85)
• The term was coined by Stanley Cohen in his 1973 book Folk Devils and Moral Panics. (similarity 0.85)
• Folk Devils and Moral Panics is a 1972 sociology book by Stanley Cohen — the first book to define the social concept. (similarity 0.84)
• Moral panics are characterized by an exaggerated, stylized folk devil perceived as threatening the social order, which attracts public hostility. (similarity 0.83)
• The phrase ‘moral panic’ was first used by Jock Young in 1971, but Cohen notes inspiration from Marshall McLuhan’s work on media. (similarity 0.82)
• The moral dimension of social reaction is essential to Cohen’s concept of moral panic. (similarity 0.82)
• A moral panic happens when society reacts with exaggerated fear or anger to a group seen as a threat to moral values. (similarity 0.81)
• Cohen suggested that the term panic in itself connotes irrationality and a lack of control. (similarity 0.81)
• Both Young and Cohen may have been influenced by the brief appearance of the term in Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 book Understanding Media. (similarity 0.80)
• The concept of a permanent moral panic contradicts its definition. (similarity 0.80)
• Fuelling moral panics and creating folk devils are blunt public health tools with potential for consequences that bludgeon the vulnerable. (similarity 0.80)
• Cohen maintained that panic is a suitable term when used as an extended metaphor. (similarity 0.80)
• Moral panics reflect deeper social tensions rather than real threats. (similarity 0.79)