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Another Person’s Peril: Peanut Allergy, Risk Perceptions, and Responsible Sociality

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  • Michaela DeSoucey
  • Miranda R. Waggoner

Abstract

This article examines perceptions of health risk when some individuals within a shared space are in heightened danger but anyone, including unaffected others, can be a vector of risk. Using the case of peanut allergy and drawing on qualitative content analysis of the public comments submitted in response to an unsuccessful 2010 U.S. Department of Transportation proposal to prohibit peanuts on airplanes, we analyze contention over the boundaries of responsibility for mitigating exposure to risk. We find three key dimensions of proximity to risk (material, social, and situational) characterizing ardent claims both for and against policy enactment. These proximity concerns underlay commenters’ sensemaking about fear, trust, rights, moral obligations, and liberty in the act of sharing space with others, while allowing them to stake positions on what we call “responsible sociality†—an ethic of discernible empathy for proximate others and of consideration for public benefit in social and communal settings. We conclude by discussing the insights our case affords several other areas of scholarship attentive to the intractable yet timely question of “for whom do we care?â€

Suggested Citation

  • Michaela DeSoucey & Miranda R. Waggoner, 2022. "Another Person’s Peril: Peanut Allergy, Risk Perceptions, and Responsible Sociality," American Sociological Review, , vol. 87(1), pages 50-79, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amsocr:v:87:y:2022:i:1:p:50-79
    DOI: 10.1177/00031224211067773
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Åsa Boholm & Hervé Corvellec, 2011. "A relational theory of risk," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 175-190, February.
    2. Arceneaux, Kevin, 2017. "Anxiety Reduces Empathy Toward Outgroup Members But Not Ingroup Members," Journal of Experimental Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(1), pages 68-80, April.
    3. Bayer, R. & Colgrove, J., 2002. "Science, politics, and ideology in the campaign against environmental tobacco smoke," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(6), pages 949-954.
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    1. Fisher, Jill A., 2025. "Pursuing a “normal” life of food: Families’ experiences of pediatric food allergy clinical trials," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 378(C).
    2. Filippo Oncini & Malte B. Rödl & Moris Triventi & Alan Warde, 2023. "Cultural Intolerance, in Practice: Social Variation in Food and Drink Avoidances in Italy, 2003–2016," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 1075-1096, December.

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