ABSTRACT
The premise of this chapter is that the models and terminology of moral panic imply the existence of social psychological processes that cannot be captured by primarily sociological perspectives. Such processes affect especially relationships within elites and between them and the public. Elites in moral panics comprise media managers, moral entrepreneurs, nominated experts, politicians, and state functionaries. The choice of which issues are selected for moral campaigning may be politically motivated, but is often psychologically grounded. For example, the protection of children has both an ideological base, in the construction of innocent victims, and a psychological dimension, in the emotional reaction to exploitation of children in need of protection. Such collective emotional dynamics are often ignored or taken for granted in moral panic analysis. A related psychological dimension is campaigns’ roles in solidifying the elite as morally unified. Otherwise divided by function or political allegiance, their identity and legitimacy as a group can be symbolically realized by moral panics. Such psychological factors require explanation just as much as the activities of claims makers or the machinations of the mass media.
