Primetime Satan: Fear-Based Media Exposure, Moral Panic, and Electoral Behavior

Fernanda Sobrino (), Alejandro Diaz and Adolfo de Unanue
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Fernanda Sobrino: Escuela de Gobierno y Transformación Pública, Tecnológico de Monterrey
Alejandro Diaz: Escuela de Gobierno y Transformación Pública, Tecnológico de Monterrey
Adolfo de Unanue: Escuela de Gobierno y Transformación Pública, Tecnológico de Monterrey

No 32, Working Paper Series of the School of Government and Public Transformation from School of Governement and Public Transformation

Abstract: This paper exploits the 1983-1992 Satanic Panic as a natural experiment to identify the political effects of fear-based entertainment media. Using two independent proxies for panic exposure across 176 Designated Market Areas -- predetermined NBC affiliate delivery strength and geographic proximity to Satanic Ritual Abuse prosecution epicenters -- we find that both predict excess Republican presidential vote-share gains of approximately 0.5 to 1.2 percentage points in 1988, relative to the pre-panic trend. The two instruments have opposite demographic profiles, making single-confound explanations implausible. The case proximity effect fully reverts by 1992, consistent with credibility collapse after the McMartin acquittals and the FBI's 1992 debunking report; the NBC effect decays more slowly, consistent with the absence of a localized corrective in markets that received the panic through national television. The convergence of two instruments with distinct demographic profiles identifies fear-based entertainment media as a direct persuasion channel, operating independently of institutional religious infrastructure.

Keywords: moral panic; media effects; entertainment television; electoral behavior; political persuasion; Republican vote; satanic panic; difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 L82 P16 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2026-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
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