The Meaning of Collective Terrorist Threat: Understanding the Subjective Causes of Terrorism Reduces Its Negative Psychological Impact

Autor/inn/en	Fischer, Peter; Postmes, Tom; Koeppl, Julia; Conway, Lianne; Fredriksson, Tom
Titel	The Meaning of Collective Terrorist Threat: Understanding the Subjective Causes of Terrorism Reduces Its Negative Psychological Impact
Quelle	In: Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 26 (2011) 7, S.1432-1445 (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0886-2605
DOI	10.1177/0886260510369137
Schlagwörter	Terrorism; Well Being; Psychological Patterns; Coping; Mental Health; Mass Media Effects; College Students; Foreign Countries; United Kingdom + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Terrorismus; Well-being; Wellness; Wohlbefinden; Bewältigung; Psychohygiene; Collegestudent; Ausland; Großbritannien
Abstract	This article hypothesized that the possibility to construct intellectual meaning of a terrorist attack (i.e., whether participants can cognitively understand why the perpetrators did their crime) reduces the negative psychological consequences typically associated with increased terrorist threat. Concretely, the authors investigated the effect of intellectual meaning (induced by providing additional information about potential economic, cultural, and historical reasons for the terrorist attack) on perceived terrorist threat and associated emotional well-being. Study 1 revealed that pictures of terrorist attacks elicited less experienced terrorist threat when they were presented with background information about the terrorists' motives (meaning provided) rather than without additional background information (no meaning provided). Study 2 replicated this effect with a different manipulation of terrorist threat (i.e., newspaper article) and clarified the underlying psychological process: Participants in the high terror salience condition with meaning provided experienced less terrorist threat and thus more emotional well-being in the face of crisis than participants in the high terror salience condition without meaning provided. Theoretical and practical implications in the context of psychological health and mass media effects are discussed. (Contains 7 notes and 2 tables.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10