How Students and the Public Define Terrorism, and How Education Affects Those Definitions

How do students and the public define terrorism, and what impact does education have on those definitions? We gathered evidence from an extensive series of experimental and observational surveys involving students in 31 terrorism and non-terrorism related courses at 12 universities, as well as online survey experiments of the general public. Students and the public initially define terrorism as being committed by non-state actors and targeting civilians at a far lower rate than do academics and governments, although those percentages increase after students and the public take courses and watch video lectures on terrorism. Although other studies identify the religion of the perpetrator (especially Islam) as perhaps the most significant element in implicit, revealed definitions of terrorism, almost no students or members of the public mentioned religion or Islam in any form in their explicit, stated definitions. Finally, latent variable analysis reveals that the more that students and the public learn about terrorism, the more they define it as a rational act. Our findings reveal how the uninformed public’s lack of specificity on perpetrators and victims enables the idea that “one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter,” but also how education can change those definitions and, perhaps, their application

Criminology · Mathematics education · Political science · Public education · Public relations · Sociology · Terrorism · Law · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence