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Behavioral and emotional responses to escalating terrorism threat

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Abstract

We conducted an online study of projected behavioral and emotional responses to escalating terrorist threat. The study employed scenarios in which terrorists targeted commercial airliners with missiles at an international airport. An important feature of attacks on commercial flights is that unlike many other terrorist threats, exposure to the risk can be controlled simply be refusing to fly. Nine scenarios were constructed by crossing two between-subjects factors, each with three levels: (1) planned government protective actions and (2) social norm, expressed as variation in airline ticket sales. Scenarios also incorporated descriptions of three increasingly severe attacks; this was a within-subjects factor. After each description, we asked respondents to imagine they had planned a vacation to a destination 2,500 km away, and we examined their projected fear and behavior. Fear increased and more trips were canceled as the attacks escalated. Government protective actions and social norm had little impact on either fear or planned flying.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by research Grant GO 1107/10-1 from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to Anja Göritz. We wish to thank Richard John and Heather Rosoff for their contributions to scenario construction and the experimental design.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Freiburg, Engelbergerstraße 41, 79085, Freiburg, Germany

    Anja S. Göritz

  2. California State University, Los Angeles, 609 Colonial Circle, Fullerton, CA, 92835, USA

    David J. Weiss

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  1. Anja S. Göritz
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  2. David J. Weiss
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Correspondence to Anja S. Göritz.

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Göritz, A.S., Weiss, D.J. Behavioral and emotional responses to escalating terrorism threat. Mind Soc 13, 285–295 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-014-0147-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-014-0147-7

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