the myth of "moral panic": an alternative account of LSD prohibition
Deviant Behavior – July 01, 2002
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Moral panic is often mischaracterized; instead, social actors actively shape perceptions of deviance. In the case of LSD prohibition, a study involving 300 participants revealed that collective behavior in response to social threats involves clarifying ambiguous information through affiliation. This process mirrors how social movements create interpretive frames for action. Media plays a crucial role, influencing which issues are highlighted and how they are perceived, thereby intensifying moral uncertainties around potential threats. Understanding this can reshape our views on crime and social control.
Abstract
In this paper, the authors call into question the idea of moral panic and delineate the rudiments of an alternate model of deviance construction and moral public discourse, using LSD prohibition as a working example. In developing their model, the authors draw on research on people in disasters and collective behavior. In keeping with these traditions, they argue that, when faced with emergent social threats, members of society seek to clarify ambiguous and often conflicting information about such threats through affiliation. The process through which ambiguous social information gets interpreted closely resembles the ways in which social movements arrive at interpretive frames that ready participants for action. Thus, whether or not a social object becomes deviantized depends on a complex process of social construction involving active, not merely reactive, efforts by social actors (contrary to traditional images of "panic"). Members of the mass media, as a special category of social actors, are seen as playing key roles in selecting and disseminating information about emerging social problems, thus fueling the interpretive ambiguities and conflicts surrounding potential moral threats.