Terror, terror everywhere?
- Author(s)
- Jörg Matthes, Desiree Schmuck, Christian von Sikorski
- Abstract
Terrorist attacks committed by the so-called Islamic State are rising in Western countries. How the news media portray these attacks may crucially influence emotional responses and support for anti-Muslim policies such as immigration bans. Based on the Extended parallel response model (EPRM, Witte, 1992), we theorize that specific features of terrorism news such as threat severity (e.g., high vs. low number of potential terrorist offenders) and threat controllability (e.g., nondiffuse, controllable threat vs. diffuse, uncontrollable threat) influence individuals' emotional reactions and policy support. A quota-based online experiment (N = 501) reveals that news articles featuring a high number of offenders increase individuals' fear of terror irrespective of whether the threat is portrayed as controllable or not. News articles featuring a low number of offenders only evoke fear of terror if the threat is portrayed as diffuse. Additionally, news articles emphasizing a high number of offenders combined with a controllable terrorism threat elicit anger on the government. Both anger and fear of terror subsequently increase anti-Muslim policy support.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Communication
- External organisation(s)
- Universität Koblenz-Landau
- Journal
- Political Psychology
- Volume
- 40
- Pages
- 935-951
- No. of pages
- 17
- ISSN
- 0162-895X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12576
- Publication date
- 10-2019
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 508007 Communication science, 508014 Journalism
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Philosophy, Social Psychology, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/terror-terror-everywhere(2e67fba2-11f7-4435-8260-8f2076d7538a).html