Terrorism and Misperceptions: Evidence from Europe

Kerim Arin, Umair Khalil (), Deni Mazrekaj and Marcel Thum

No 10476, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: How does exposure to Islamist terrorism change perceptions of the share of Muslims and immigrants? We conduct a large-scale survey that measures misperceptions towards minority groups in four European countries. Our results show that terror attacks in the past increased misperceptions of the share of Muslims and immigrants. We also contend that this increase in misperceptions is particularly large and significant for lower-educated respondents and people from regions with a low share of the foreign population. Given that misperceptions are higher on average in regions with a large share of foreigners, terror attacks make misperceptions across different groups converge.

Keywords: terror attacks; misconceptions; public opinion; cognitive biases; prejudice; attitude formation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D70 H11 H12 H41 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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