Do fears of terrorism predict trust in government?
Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research
ISSN: 1759-6599
Article publication date: 29 January 2010
Abstract
Since 9/11, 2001, protection from terrorism has become a poignant issue in the political spectrum, and some have argued that fears of terrorism have been manipulated for political purposes. Contributing to a growing body of research, this study sought to test whether terrorism fears, and/or the impact of terror alerts, predicted overall trust in government in a sample of university undergraduates who completed the Perceptions of Terrorism Questionnaire Short‐Form (PTQ‐SF). Two psychological theories offer plausible explanations for this relationship: attachment theory and evolutionary psychology theory. Results indicate that both general terrorism fears and the impact of terror alerts specifically, are statistically significant predictors of trust in government, using separate hierarchical regression models after controlling for other factors. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed, as are directions for further research.
Keywords
Citation
Sinclair, S. and LoCicero, A. (2010), "Do fears of terrorism predict trust in government?", Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 57-68. https://doi.org/10.5042/jacpr.2010.0005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited