The Politics of Threat: Terrorism (Paperback)

Using 9/11 as a starting point, the dissertation offers a theoretical perspective on how individual level psychological reactions to threat as well as the political and media environments fundamentally shape public foreign policy attitudes. Building on scholarship on public opinion and political communication, this project pays close attention not only to the type of information that the public receives but to also to how that information is communicated in times of crisis. This dissertation argues that the mass media's focus on the most threatening news combined with public concern over further terrorism opened a political space for a hawkish policy message to persuade to the public. This crisis period provided a unique circumstance for persuasion since the public was motivated to become informed and there were few messages competing with President George W. Bush's policy message. By considering how threat and fear may motivate citizens to seek information and also provide a space for persuasion, this dissertation offers a new perspective on how emotions may condition citizens' reactions to a threatening environment and affect opinion formation. Chapter 2 describes how Americans view foreign policy and what types of foreign policies they prefer during both times of peace and in more threatening times. Chapter 3 develops a theoretical perspective to explain the role of a threatening political and media environment on foreign policy attitudes. This theory pays particular attention to the role of emotion in affecting the public's attitudes. Chapter 4 examines the effect of citizens' beliefs about the likelihood of further terrorism on foreign policy attitudes using the NES 2000-2002-2004 panel. The chapter finds that Americans concerned about terrorism were more likely to prefer policies that demanded military force than policies that emphasized conciliation compared to citizens unconcerned about the terrorist threat. Chapter 5 explores the origins of citizens' perceptions of threat, particularly, how individual level predispositions and behaviors such as media use influence beliefs about the risk of terrorism. The chapter tests the effect of threatening news on individuals' threat perception using the Threat Experiment, an original media experiment designed for the project. Using the Threat Experiment, Chapter 6 shows that when threatening information is paired with fear cues in news stories that those respondents concerned about terrorism are significantly more likely to support militaristic foreign policy than respondents who only receive the threatening information. Chapter 7 demonstrates that foreign policy attitudes affect voters' decisions and there are strategic incentives for both Democratic and Republican candidates to take hawkish positions in order to gain votes at election time. Chapter 8 focuses on how the same mechanisms that influenced foreign policy may matter for other policy areas such as immigration, public health, and crime.