Affect and Risk Perception in the Context of Terrorism: towards an Understanding of Its Psychosocial Aspects

The immediate consequences of terrorism are evident in the graphic news images of mayhem that quickly follow such events. But terrorism is like a stone tossed into a still pond. It triggers waves of consequence that ripple out over multiple timescales from the micro-level of the individual to the macro-level of international relations. The socio-political dynamics that terrorism triggers are undoubtedly complex and still not well understood [1]. Nor can the rippling effects of terrorism be attributed to the sheer magnitude of threat posed. As Mueller [2] points out, the statistical risk of terrorism in the U.S. is comparable to that of being killed by lightning or an allergic reaction to peanuts. Thus concern about terrorism as a form of threat, both by government officials and members of the public, reflects much about its psychosocial nature. The threat of terrorism, unlike the threat of lightning, seems to stem in large measure from the signal it sends, and from our own ability to imagine terrorists increasing the frequency and magnitude of their mayhem unless counter-terrorism measures are taken to stop them. As Slovic [3] proposed some time ago, the perception of risk would seem to have much to do with its signal value – what a particular type of threat portends for the future – and terrorism is a good example of risk as signal.