The Last Moral Panic
Conceptual Clarifications and the Complications of Artificial Intelligence
Keywords:
moral panic, social problems, artificial intelligenceAbstract
Moral panic is rarely defined in ways that move us beyond an unwillingness to accept alternative viewpoints or hierarchies of credibility. This paper outlines a definition of moral panic that maintains the analytical framework of studied groups and reads as collective, corrective-intended behaviour based on an irrational belief that exaggerates the threat posed by a social problem. After describing that which constitutes a social problem and differentiating concepts from theories, we continue to deconstruct the definition in reverse order before presenting moral panic as a two-stage process and testing an empirical example. The paper ends with a discussion of how advancements in artificial intelligence may limit the concept’s use.
References
Alessio, J. C. (2011). Social problems and inequality: Social responsibility through pro-gressive sociology. Ashgate.
Greco, C. (2016). Falling back on the concept of (moral) panic: Questioning significance, practicality, and costs [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Ottawa.
Becker, H. (1967). Whose side are we on? Social Problems, 14(3), 239-247. https://doi.org/10.2307/799147
Best, J. (2021). Social problems (4th ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.
Brien, P. (2001-09-20). Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. House of Commons Debates, Official Report (Hansard), 137(82). 37th Par-liament, 1st Session, 2001–2002.
Brown, R. W. (1959). Mass phenomena. In G. Lindzey (Ed.), Handbook of social psycholo-gy: Special fields and applications (Vol. II, pp. 833-876). Addison-Wesley. (Original work published 1954)
Canning, K. (1994). Feminist history after the Linguistic Turn: Historicizing discourse and experience. Signs, 19(2), 368-404.
Cauchon, M. (2002-04-18). Justice. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. House of Commons Debates, Official Report (Hansard) 137(171), 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001-2002.
Clarke, L., & Chess, C. (2008). Elites and panic: More to fear than fear itself. Social
Forces, 87(2), 993-1014. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0155
Cobb, P., Stephan, M., McClain, K., & Gravemeijer, K. (2001). Participating in classroom mathematical practices. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10(1&2), 113-163. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327809JLS10-1-2_6
Cohen, S. (1972). Folk devils and moral panics: The creation of the Mods and Rockers. MacGibbon and Kee.
Cohen, S. (2002). Folk devils and moral panics: The creation of the Mods and Rockers (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Critcher, C. (2003). Moral panics and the media. Open University Press.
Danaher, J. (2016). The Threat of Algocracy: Reality, Resistance and Accommodation. Phi-losophy & Technology, 29(3), 245-268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-015-0211-1
Dandoy, A. (2015). Towards a Bourdieusian frame of moral panic analysis: The history of a moral panic inside the field of humanitarian aid. Theoretical Criminology, 19(3), 416-433. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480614553522
Deng, L. (2018). Artificial Intelligence in the Rising Wave of Deep Learning: The Histori-cal Path and Future Outlook. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 35(1), 180–177. https://doi.org/10.1109/MSP.2017.2762725
Drotner, K. (1999). Dangerous media? Panic discourses and dilemmas of modernity. Paed-agogica Historica, 35(3), 593-619. https://doi.org/10.1080/0030923990350303
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Polity.
Fairclough, N. (2001a). Critical discourse analysis as a method in social scientific research. In R. Wodak & M. J. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 121-138). Sage.
Fairclough, N. (2001b). The discourse of new labour: Critical discourse analysis. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor & S. J. Yates (Eds.), Discourse as data: A guide for analysis (pp. 229-266). Sage.
Fairclough, N. (2009). A dialectical-relational approach to critical discourse analysis in social research. In R. Wodak & M. J. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analy-sis (2nd ed., pp. 162-186). Sage.
Falkof, N. (2020). On moral panic: Some directions for further development. Critical Soci-ology, 46(2), 225-239. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920518803698
Fekete, J. (1994). Moral panic: Biopolitics rising. Robert Davies.
Freud, S. (1922). Group psychology and the analysis of the ego. Boni and Liveright.
Garland, D. (2008). On the concept of moral panic. Crime, Media, Culture, 4(1), 9-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741659007087270
Goode, E. (2000). No need to panic? A bumper crop of books on moral panics. Sociologi-cal Forum, 15(3), 543-552. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007584612270
Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (1994a). Moral panics: Culture, politics, and social construc-tion. Annual Review of Sociology, 20, 149-171. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.20.080194.001053
Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (1994b). Moral panics: The social construction of deviance. Blackwell.
Goode, E., & Ben-Yehuda, N. (2009). Moral panics: The social construction of deviance (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Hall, S. M., Critcher, C., Jefferson, T., Clarke, J., & Roberts, B. (1978). Policing the crisis: Mugging, the state and law and order. Macmillan.
Heiner, R. (2002). Social problems: An introduction to critical constructionism. Oxford University Press.
Hier, S. (2019). Moral panics and digital-media logic: Notes on a changing research agen-da. Crime Media Culture, 15(2), 379-388.
Hobbes, T. (1985). Leviathan. Penguin. (Original work published 1651)
Horton, P. B., Leslie, G. R., & Larson, R. F. (1991). The sociology of social problems (10th ed.). Prentice Hall.
Hunt, A. (1999). Governing morals: A social history of moral regulation. Cambridge Uni-versity Press.
Hunt, A. (2011). Fractious rivals? Moral panics and moral regulation. In S. P. Hier (Ed.), Moral panics and the politics of anxiety (pp. 53-70). Routledge.
Hunt, A. (2013). Assemblages of moral politics: Yesterday and today. In C. Krinsky (Ed.), The Ashgate companion to moral panics (pp. 55-66). Ashgate.
Jenkins, P. (1992). Intimate enemies: Moral panics in contemporary Great Britain. Aldine de Gruyter.
Jenkins, P. (1998). Moral Panic: Changing concepts of the child molester in modern Amer-ica. Yale University Press.
Jenkins, P. (2009). Failure to launch: Why do some social issues fail to denotate moral pan-ics? British Journal of Criminology, 49(1), 35-47. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azn016
Jewkes, Y., & Wykes, M. (2012). Reconstructing the sexual abuse of children: ‘Cyber-paeds’, panic and power. Sexualities, 15(8), 934-952. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460712459314
Johnen, M., Jungblut, M., & Ziegele, M. (2018). The digital outcry: What incites participa-tion behavior in an online firestorm? New Media & Society, 20(9), 3140-3160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817741883
Kaas, M.H.L. (2024). The Perfect Technological Storm: Artificial Intelligence and Moral Complacency. Ethics and Information Technology, 26(3), 49(1-12). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-024-09788-0
Kidd, C., & Birhane, A. (2023). How AI can distort human beliefs. Science, 380(6651), 1222–1223. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi0248
Kinloch, G. C. (1977). Sociological theory: Its development and major paradigms. McGraw-Hill.
Klocke, B. V., & Muschert, G. W. (2010). A hybrid model of moral panics: Synthesizing the theory and practice of moral panic research. Sociology Compass, 4(5), 295-309. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00281.x
Klocke, B. V., & Muschert, G. W. (2013). Practicing moral panic research: A hybrid model with guidelines for its application. In C. Krinsky (Ed.), The Ashgate research compan-ion to moral panics (pp. 415-428). Ashgate.
Kordzadeh, N., & Ghasemaghaei, M. (2022) Algorithmic bias: review, synthesis, and future research directions. European Journal of Information Systems, 31(3), 388-409. https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2021.1927212
Laframboise, M. (2001-09-20). Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. House of Commons Debates, Official Report (Hansard) 137(82). 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001–2002.
Laundy, P. (1977). The structure of Parliament. In D. Currie (Ed.), Canada’s Parliament (pp. 102-103). Ottawa: House of Commons.
Lunney, J. (2001-09-20). Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. House of Commons Debates, Official Report (Hansard), 137(82). 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001–2002.
Mawson, A. R. (2007). Mass panic and social attachment: The dynamics of human behav-ior. Ashgate.
McLellan, A. (2001-05-03). Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. House of Commons Debates, Official Report (Hansard), 137(54). 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001–2002.
McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. McGraw-Hill.
Quarantelli, E. L. (1954). The nature and conditions of panic. American Journal of Sociol-ogy, 60(3), 267-275. https://doi.org/10.1086/221536
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In R. Wodak & M. J. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 87-121). Sage.
Rohloff, A. (2011). Extending the concept of moral panic: Elias, climate change and Civi-lization. Sociology, 45(4), 634-649. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511406597
Rohloff, A., Hughes, J., Petley, J., & Critcher, C. (2013). Moral panics in the contemporary world: Enduring controversies and future directions. In C. Critcher, J. Hughes, J. Petley & A. Rohloff (Eds.), Moral panics in the contemporary world (pp. 1-29). Bloomsbury.
Shard, M. (2001-12-05). Evidence. Canada. Parliament. Senate. Proceedings of the Stand-ing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, (20), 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001-2002.
Smelser, N. J. (1967). Theory of collective behavior. Free. (Original work published 1962)
Spector, M., & Kitsuse, J. (2009). Constructing social problems. Transaction. (Original work published 2001)
Stoffer, P. (2001-09-20). Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001. House of Commons. House of Commons Debates, Official Report (Hansard), 137(82), 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001-2002.
Sullivan, S. (2001-10-04). Evidence. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001-2002.
Tester, K. (2013). Panic. Routledge.
Thompson, K. (1998). Moral Panics. Routledge.
Thompson, B., & Williams, A. (2014). The myth of moral panics: Sex, snuff, and Satan. Routledge.
Toews, V. (2001-05-07). Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2001. House of Commons. House of Commons Debates, Official Report (Hansard), 137(56), 37th Parliament, 1st Session, 2001-2002.
Waiton, S. (2008). The politics of antisocial behaviour: Amoral panics. Routledge.
Walsh, J.P. (2020). Social media and moral panics: Assessing the effects of technological change on social reaction. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(6), 840-859. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877920912257
Wise, A.F., & Shaffer, D.W. (2015). Why theory matters more than ever in the age of big da-ta. Learning Analytics, 2(2), 5-13. https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2015.22.2
Wright, S. (2015). Moral panics as enacted melodramas. British Journal of Criminology, 55(6), 1245-1262. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azv025
Young, J. (1982). The role of police as amplifiers of deviancy, negotiators of reality and translators of fantasy: Some consequences of our present system of drug control as seen in Notting Hill. In S. Cohen (Ed.), Images of deviance (pp. 27-61). Penguin. (Original work published 1971)
Young, J. (2007). Slipping away: Moral panics each side of ‘the Golden Age’. In D. Downes, P. Rock, C. Chinkin & C. Gearty (Eds.), Crime, social control and human rights: From moral panics to states of denial: Essays in honour of Stanley Cohen (pp. 53-65). Willan.
