On Scandal

By Ari Adut,

Book cover of On Scandal: Moral Disturbances in Society, Politics, and Art

Book description

Scandal is the quintessential public event. Here is the first general and comprehensive analysis of this ubiquitous moral phenomenon. Taking up wide-ranging cases in society, politics, and art, Ari Adut shows when wrong-doings generate scandals and when they do not. He focuses on the emotional and cognitive experience of scandals…

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Why read it?

1 author picked On Scandal as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I discovered this book more than ten years ago, when I was still a stressed PhD student in Tokyo, and reading the book gave me some great relief.

The book was the first to show me that scandals can indeed reveal a lot about the society that produces them. Further, it taught me how to approach scandal as “moral disturbance” (the author’s term), and it updated my knowledge on the role of scandals in the art world (Oscar Wilde).

I love the book because it provides great insights into how the social structure defines individual agency, and what happens when…

From Igor's list on scandal and why it matters.

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