In-Group Terrorism and Out-Group Trust

While the reactions to terrorist attacks vary from peaceful mobilizations to war on terrorism, most existing research assumes that it is fear that guides the reactions to terrorism within a population. The fear caused by terrorism is assumed to lead to denigration of out-groups and reliance on the in-group, and this mechanism is thought to be valid in different contexts. As prior research shows that Norway was not characterized by high levels of fear after the attacks on July 22 2011, and this article explores how other mechanisms than fear may be important in shaping the responses to terrorism. It uses a unique panel consisting of almost 2000 Norwegians, participating in the survey both before and after the 22/7 attacks, to study the consequences of terrorism for out-group trust, complementing the mechanism of fear with alternative hypotheses. Two mechanisms are explored that both are related to the political attitudes of the perpetrator and different sub-groups in the population. On the one hand, I test whether motivated political reasoning conditions the individuals reaction to terrorism, possibly leading to a strengthening of the individuals’ prior beliefs. On the other, I study the how a possible wish to separate oneself from the in-group “black sheep” terrorist could lead people with similar attitudes to change to a more positive view of out-groups. Contrary to what has been found in other cases, the findings point to a general increase in the trust other in ethnic and religious groups in Norway after the attacks. This increase is dependent on prior political views, and it is the people that were the most positive towards immigration that increased their trust, reflecting motivated political reasoning and a disconfirmation bias . There is no support however for an individual “black sheep effect” causing distancing from the attitudes of the perpetrator. Finally, general implications for the study of consequences of terrorist attacks are discussed.