Divergent shifts in fear of terrorism

Abstract

In this study, we examine how the two facets of the fear of terrorism—the affective and behavioural fears—shift over time. To this end, we use a unique longitudinal data set of a representative sample of 755 Dutch respondents, recruited from the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences panel, in the time period between November 2017 and May 2020. We find that the reported affective fear of terrorism is significantly lower during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 than it was in 2017. Yet a divergent trend for behavioural fear of terrorism occurred. In spite of decreased affective fear of terrorism threats, respondents in 2020 reported increased protective and avoidance behaviours, similar to behaviours promoted to stop the spread of COVID-19.