Terrorist attacks sharpen the binary perception of “Us” vs. “Them”

Jović, Milan; Šubelj, Lovro; Голоб, Тэа; Makarovič, Matej; Yasseri, Taha; Krstićev, Danijela Boberić; Škrbić, Srdjan; Levnajić, Zoran

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-39035-3

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…One possibility by which trigger events might impact minorities' stress, wellbeing and health is by increasing the salience of group boundaries. Research on terrorist attacks finds that such incidents can reinforce the boundary between the victimized group and the group to which the perpetrator belongs (Jović et al, 2023 ). Drawing on the framework of Intergroup Emotions Theory (Mackie et al, 2008 ), heightened salience of group boundaries may lead individuals to identify more strongly with a group, spurring collective emotional responses.…”

Section: Hate Crime and Its Impact On Minority Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The shadow of fear: hate crime victimization and stress after Charlottesville

Hellyer,

Gereke

2024

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionRecent years have witnessed an increase in highly publicized attacks targeting members of ethnoracial and religious minority groups. To date, existing research has primarily focused on the tendency for such “trigger events” to generate violent aftershocks. We argue that beyond such ripple effects, highly salient trigger events significantly increase hate-crime related stress among racial and ethnic minorities. Additionally, we explore whether these effects are limited to the group most clearly targeted, or if they “spill over” to other minoritized communities.MethodsTo study reactions to hate crimes, we draw upon national survey data (N = 1,122) in combination with a natural experiment involving the Unite the Right rally and vehicle attack in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. We employ an “unexpected event during survey” design to estimate the causal effect of the Charlottesville rally on stress about hate crimes.ResultsWe first show that there was an increase in anti-Black hate crimes in the 2 weeks following the Charlottesville incident. We also find a corresponding increase in stress due to the perception of personal vulnerability to hate crimes among African-Americans. However, we do not observe a significant increase in levels of stress following the trigger event among Hispanics and Asian Americans.DiscussionOur results suggest that highly publicized instances of intergroup violence can have significant impacts on stress about hate crime victimization within the target group. However, we find that this effect is short-lived, and that both violent aftershocks and the general climate of fear spurred by hate crimes may be racially bounded.

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Section: Hate Crime and Its Impact On Minority Wellbeingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The shadow of fear: hate crime victimization and stress after Charlottesville

Hellyer,

Gereke

2024

Front. Psychol.

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“…Analyzing 11 events related to terrorism and crime, Giavazzi et al [30] showed the language used on German Twitter became more similar to the language used by the rightwing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party after such events. Finally, Jović et al [43], analyzing views of Wikipedia pages before and after attacks, demonstrated that attacks boosted attention to pages on content related to the attackers (such as terrorism or Islam), as well as to pages on security and self-perception (such as the national or religious identities of one's society). This underscores the importance of Islamist attacks for processes of boundary-making in Western countries.…”

Section: The Impact Of Islamist Terrorism On Ethno-religious Hostilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Hostility on Twitter in the Aftermath of Terror Attacks

Czymara,

Gorodzeisky

2023

Preprint

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This study investigates the relationship between major terror attacks associated with political Islam and manifestations of ethno-religious hostility on social media. Analyzing approximately 4.5 million time-stamped tweets from approximately 1.2 million distinct users across five European countries, the study focuses on tweets discussing immigration and related topics in the weeks before and after ten significant terror attacks. The findings identified a notable increase in the probability of tweets with ethno-religious hostility after the attacks in question. A spline function analysis demonstrates a 9.8 percentage point surge at the time of the attack, followed by a gradual decline. This suggests that the impact of such attacks on online hostility diminishes approximately seven days after the event. Further analyses reveal that the overall attack effect is driven by both intra-user changes in tweeting and changes in the composition of users posting after an attack. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the interplay between terrorist events and online discourse, shedding light on the dynamics of ethno-religious hostility in the digital realm.

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Hostility on Twitter in the aftermath of terror attacks

Czymara,

Gorodzeisky

2024

J Comput Soc Sc

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This study investigates the relationship between major Jihadist terror attacks and manifestations of ethno-religious hostility on social media. Analyzing approximately 4.5 million time-stamped Tweets from 1.2 million users across five European countries, the study focuses on content discussing migration and related topics in the weeks before and after ten significant terror attacks. The findings show a notable and robust increase in hostile Tweets after an attack. An interrupted time series analysis demonstrates a 10% point surge at the time of the attack, followed by a gradual decline. Accordingly, the impact of such attacks on online hostility diminishes approximately seven days after the event. Further analyses reveal that while attacks have the strongest effect on Tweets about Muslims and Islam, the attacks also increase hostility in Tweets about migration in general. We find that the overall attack effect is driven by both intra-user changes in Tweeting and changes in the composition of users posting after an attack. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the interplay between terrorist events and online discourse, shedding light on the dynamics of ethno-religious hostility in the digital realm.

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Terrorist attacks sharpen the binary perception of “Us” vs. “Them”

Cited by 4 publications

References 53 publications

The shadow of fear: hate crime victimization and stress after Charlottesville

The shadow of fear: hate crime victimization and stress after Charlottesville

Hostility on Twitter in the Aftermath of Terror Attacks

Hostility on Twitter in the aftermath of terror attacks

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