Year: 2026
Type: article
Study designs: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis
Abstract: Recent literature suggests that citizens in Western democracies have become desensitized to Islamist terrorism and that Islamist attacks therefore no longer evoke the same changes in political attitudes as before. However, this hypothesis remains undertheorized and has not been systematically tested. We develop a theoretical framework that positions desensitization alongside alternative trajectories of public responsiveness and subject it to two complementary tests. In Study 1, we draw on a meta-analytic dataset of over 170 previous studies and 800 effect estimates to assess whether public reactions to Islamist terrorism have changed as a result of repeated exposure. In Study 2, we conduct a more controlled comparison of the effects of two recent Islamist terrorist attacks using a comparable research design and a new data source. Across both studies, we find little evidence that responsiveness has systemically diminished – or increased – over time, calling into question the presumed erosion of the effects of Islamist terrorism on political attitudes in Western democracies.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
Awards: Who Are the Bad Guys? Disentangling Definitions and Discourses on Terrorism Among Politicians and Citizens in Belgium and Norway, Nonviolent Repression and the Escalation of Conflicts over Self-Determination (NRECS), Popular Sovereignty vs. the Rule of Law? Defining the Limits of Direct Democracy
OpenAlex ID: W7154332210