Does Terrorism Dominate Citizens' Hearts or Minds? The Relationship Between Fear of Terrorism and Trust in Government

Abstract

Terrorism only poses a small risk to people but tends

to be a major source of public fear. Through fear, terrorism has far-reaching

implications for governance. We look at trust in government as a potential

mitigating factor of fear of terrorism. We discern between calculative trust, based on analytical assessment of previous and expected actions, and relational trust, based on emotions and perceived value similarity with government. We find that relational trust decreases fear of terrorism. A similar but less robust negative relationship exists between calculative trust and fear. However, our regression analyses suggest that relational trust, in fact, may mediate the relationship between calculative trust and fear of terrorism. The more citizens think government is able to prevent terrorist attacks and feel that authorities are doing enough, the more they, in turn, feel that their government shares their values, and the less fearful they are of future terrorist attacks.