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Seminar paper from the year 2024 in the subject Psychology - Social Psychology, grade: 1,0, University of Frankfurt (Main) (Psychologie), course: Sozialpsychologie, language: English, abstract: With over 5.35 billion users worldwide, social media has fundamentally changed the way people access information and engage with content. Social media not only serves as a primary source of news and knowledge, but also influences emotional responses through likes, shares, and comments. This paper examines the mechanisms of social media, in particular the influence of emotional content on affective attitudes and the resulting moral panic. Building on Cohen's (1972) and Goode and Ben-Yehuda's (2009) concept of moral panic, a new model is introduced that illustrates how social media accelerates the spread of emotionally charged content, thereby amplifying public concern and intensifying attitudes. Connected to this, the research focuses on mechanisms such as algorithmic targeting, emotional contagion, and social proof. The findings highlight the need for future research to understand the influence of emotionally charged content and the role of social media in the spread of moral panics.
