Public opinion and terrorist acts

The paper examines support for terrorism in public opinion and the relationship with terrorist attacks. We link the 2007 PEW survey data on justification for suicide terror and opinions in 16 countries of the Middle East, Africa and Asia on nine regional powers, to the NCTC data on international terrorist acts between 2004 and 2008. We find that justification in public opinion for suicide terrorism increases terror attacks on people in countries that are unfavorably regarded. There is a robust positive relationship between the share of the population in a country that at the same time justifies suicide bombings and has an unfavorable opinion of another country, and terrorism originating from the former country.

Research highlights► We find robust positive relationship between public support for terrorism and terrorist attacks. ► Public opinion has two critical dimensions for support of terrorism. ► The effect of justification of attacks depends on the level of unfavorable opinion towards target. ► The effect of unfavorable opinion depends on the level of justification of suicide attacks.