Fear across America in a Post-9/11 World

Abstract

T he terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, produced a cascade of det-rimental effects that continue to have national and international ramifications. The impact of the attacks has insidiously and profoundly compromised multiple facets of life. The psychological effects of the attacks have been the focus of empirical research and scholarly consideration. The results, and their interpretation, shed light on the immediate impact of the terrorist attacks, as well as their continuing repercussions. From our per-spective, the major enduring psychological changes affecting a large propor-tion of citizens of the United States as a result of the 9/11 attacks consist of changes in perception, both of themselves as individuals and of the country as a whole. Many Americans shifted from a perception of personal security to one of insecurity, from a perception of the country as invincible to a per-ception of the country as vulnerable, from a perception of war and carnage as something that happens somewhere else to a perception that war and car-nage can happen here, and from a perception of a mostly predictable future to one of a future that is uncertain.