Terrorist Attacks and Europeans’ Attitudes towards Immigrants: An Experiment Approach
(2020) In European Journal of Political Research 59(3). p.491-516- Abstract
- Over the past several years an increasing number of terrorist attacks committed in the name of Islam and targeting civilians have taken place in many Western democracies, calling for more research on the impact of these exogenous events on citizens’ attitudes towards immigrants. Using a quasi‐experimental design, this study examines the short‐term effect of the Paris attacks of the night of 13 November 2015 on the attitudes towards European Union (EU) and non‐EU immigrants across 28 EU countries. Employing Eurobarometer 84.3 survey data collected in 28 European countries between 7 and 17 November 2015, the design allows the testing of individual attitudes before and after the Paris attacks and the spillover effects of this event in all... (More)
- Over the past several years an increasing number of terrorist attacks committed in the name of Islam and targeting civilians have taken place in many Western democracies, calling for more research on the impact of these exogenous events on citizens’ attitudes towards immigrants. Using a quasi‐experimental design, this study examines the short‐term effect of the Paris attacks of the night of 13 November 2015 on the attitudes towards European Union (EU) and non‐EU immigrants across 28 EU countries. Employing Eurobarometer 84.3 survey data collected in 28 European countries between 7 and 17 November 2015, the design allows the testing of individual attitudes before and after the Paris attacks and the spillover effects of this event in all European countries. It is found that the Paris attacks had a significant negative effect on attitudes towards immigrants, especially among educated and left‐wing individuals. Moreover, the negative effect was stronger in countries where the national political‐ideological climate was more positive towards immigrants. These findings are explained by theorising that first emotional reactions to the attack are the results of coping mechanisms whereby individuals are confronted with disconfirmation/confirmation of their previous beliefs: individuals who experience stronger stereotype disconfirmation are the most negatively affected by the terrorist attack. Overall, the study holds important implications for understanding the short‐term impact of terrorist attacks on public attitudes towards immigrants. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/b3075518-a221-4ccb-b573-c60c40655f62
- author
- Ferrín Pereira, Monica ; Mancosu, Moreno and Cappiali, Teresa LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2020-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- terrorist attacks, attitudes to immigrants, stereotype dis/confirmation, political climate, experiment
- in
- European Journal of Political Research
- volume
- 59
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 26 pages
- publisher
- Wiley
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85075023570
- ISSN
- 1475-6765
- DOI
- 10.1111/1475-6765.12362
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b3075518-a221-4ccb-b573-c60c40655f62
- date added to LUP
- 2019-11-27 15:15:26
- date last changed
- 2022-04-18 19:01:44
@article{b3075518-a221-4ccb-b573-c60c40655f62,
abstract = {{Over the past several years an increasing number of terrorist attacks committed in the name of Islam and targeting civilians have taken place in many Western democracies, calling for more research on the impact of these exogenous events on citizens’ attitudes towards immigrants. Using a quasi‐experimental design, this study examines the short‐term effect of the Paris attacks of the night of 13 November 2015 on the attitudes towards European Union (EU) and non‐EU immigrants across 28 EU countries. Employing Eurobarometer 84.3 survey data collected in 28 European countries between 7 and 17 November 2015, the design allows the testing of individual attitudes before and after the Paris attacks and the spillover effects of this event in all European countries. It is found that the Paris attacks had a significant negative effect on attitudes towards immigrants, especially among educated and left‐wing individuals. Moreover, the negative effect was stronger in countries where the national political‐ideological climate was more positive towards immigrants. These findings are explained by theorising that first emotional reactions to the attack are the results of coping mechanisms whereby individuals are confronted with disconfirmation/confirmation of their previous beliefs: individuals who experience stronger stereotype disconfirmation are the most negatively affected by the terrorist attack. Overall, the study holds important implications for understanding the short‐term impact of terrorist attacks on public attitudes towards immigrants.}},
author = {{Ferrín Pereira, Monica and Mancosu, Moreno and Cappiali, Teresa}},
issn = {{1475-6765}},
keywords = {{terrorist attacks; attitudes to immigrants; stereotype dis/confirmation; political climate; experiment}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{491--516}},
publisher = {{Wiley}},
series = {{European Journal of Political Research}},
title = {{Terrorist Attacks and Europeans’ Attitudes towards Immigrants: An Experiment Approach}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12362}},
doi = {{10.1111/1475-6765.12362}},
volume = {{59}},
year = {{2020}},
}