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Managing Citizen Fears

Public Attitudes Toward Urban Terrorism

Brown University

Marion Orr

Brown University

The authors examine public attitudes toward urban terrorism, focusing on whether emotion or reason is a more important determinant of how people feel. Using the results of a public opinion survey in a large, northeastern city, the authors find that both emotion and reason affect people’s reactions to terrorist attacks. However, this relationship is affected by personal conversation. The more people talk about terrorism, the greater the chance reason rather than fear will dictate reactions. These results have important ramifications for how urban officials deal with homeland security and assuage citizens whose excessive concerns about terrorism have led to costly security expenditures.

Key Words: urban terrorism • public opinion • conversation • homeland security • urban policy • September 11 • 2001 • emotion • fear • rationality

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