Work

The emotional effect of terrorism

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Terrorism causes emotional reactions among public audiences, with downstream consequences for their well-being, attitudes and policy preferences. We utilise a novel approach which harnesses a unique dataset of Twitter activity from 324K users to precisely capture emotional responses to terrorism. Our results demonstrate that terrorist attacks induce dramatic spikes in various discrete emotions of a negative valence, which vary based on the characteristics of the attacks. Furthermore, we show that the terrorism-induced effects on emotions are accompanied by changes in feelings about immigration.

Source: Scientific Reports

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-77350-5

Authors: Vincenzo Bove, Georgios Efthyvoulou, Armine Ghazaryan, Harry Pickard

Institutions: IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, Newcastle University

Language: English

Topic: Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,590