Do fears of terrorism predict trust in government?

Abstract

Since 9/11, 2001, protection from terrorism has become a poignant issue in the political spectrum, and some have argued that fears of terrorism have been manipulated for political purposes. Contributing to a growing body of research, this study sought to test whether terrorism fears, and/or the impact of terror alerts, predicted overall trust in government in a sample of university undergraduates who completed the Perceptions of Terrorism Questionnaire Short‐Form (PTQ‐SF). Two psychological theories offer plausible explanations for this relationship: attachment theory and evolutionary psychology theory. Results indicate that both general terrorism fears and the impact of terror alerts specifically, are statistically significant predictors of trust in government, using separate hierarchical regression models after controlling for other factors. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed, as are directions for further research.