The effect of terrorism on religious minorities
Evidence from the German Socio-Economic Panel
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24225205 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gizem Arikan (0000-0002-2083-7321, Trinity College Dublin), Judit Krisztina Ralbovszki (0009-0005-2205-6122, Trinity College Dublin) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 55-68 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-05 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Peace Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jopres/xjaf001 |
| OpenAlex | W7128530982 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 71 |
How do terror attacks influence the attitudes of minority groups who are often targets of prejudice and hostility in their aftermath? Existing research considers the effects of terrorism on majority group attitudes; however, there is a significant gap regarding its effects on minorities. We address this gap by examining the impact of 2016–2017 terror attacks in Western Europe on the perceived discrimination of Muslims in Germany using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. We employ an unexpected event during survey design to estimate the causal effects of these attacks on Muslims' perceptions of ethnic discrimination and worry about xenophobia. Our results show that the effects of these attacks on Muslims are not uniform and depend on respondents' levels of education and integration. Respondents with higher levels of education and host language fluency are less likely to report perceived discrimination or worry about xenophobia following attacks, compared with those with lower levels of integration. These results are consistent with a dissociation–detachment mechanism, whereby more integrated members of a stigmatized group psychologically distance themselves from the in-group to buffer against the negative psychological impacts of discrimination in the aftermath of attacks. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on the psychological and political consequences of terrorism, with particular emphasis on minority communities. They underscore that minority responses to terrorism are not monolithic but shaped by social and educational differences within these communities.
Germany · Muslims · perceived discrimination · Religious minorities · Social integration · Terrorism · Xenophobia · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Systematic review
Explaining opposition to refugee resettlement
Interaction terms in logit and probit models
Social Identity Threats
Mostly Harmless Econometrics
The queen bee phenomenon
Bias-Corrected Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects
In the wake of a terrorist attack, do Americans’ attitudes toward Muslims decline
Media representation of Muslims and Islam from 2000 to 2015
Escaping poverty neighbourhoods in the Netherlands
Did the 2011 Terror Attacks in Norway Change Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Immigrants
Dramatic Real-world Events and Public Opinion Dynamics
The Strategies of Terrorism
Civil Liberties vs. Security
Distancing from a stigmatized social identity
Stigma consciousness
Jihadist Terrorist Attacks and Far-Right Party Preferences
News Media Coverage of Islam and Muslims in Australia
British Muslim Perceptions and Opinions on News Coverage of September 11
Terrorist attacks and Europeans’ attitudes towards immigrants
In‐group solidarity or out‐group hostility in response to terrorism in France? Evidence from a regression discontinuity design
Wait and See? Public Opinion Dynamics after Terrorist Attacks
The Polls-Trends
Decomposing the source of the gender gap in legislative committee service
The effect of terrorist attacks on attitudes and its duration
Conflict Transformation
The Effect of Terror on Institutional Trust
Religion and Democratic Commitment
The Paradox Between Integration and Perceived Discrimination Among American Muslims
Reactions to Terror Attacks
Fear, Anger, and Voting for the Far Right
The Democratic Consequences of Anti-immigrant Political Rhetoric
Unexpected Event during Survey Design
Matching as Nonparametric Preprocessing for Reducing Model Dependence in Parametric Causal Inference
On the Frequency of Severe Terrorist Events
Do jihadist terrorist attacks cause changes in institutional trust? A multi‐site natural experiment
Stuck with the stigma? How Muslim migrant women in the Netherlands deal – individually and collectively – with negative stereotypes
Personal Proximity and Reactions to Terrorism
Fear without Prejudice in the Shadow of Jihadist Threat
Can Terrorism Abroad Influence Migration Attitudes at Home
Xenophobic Rhetoric and Its Political Effects on Immigrants and Their Co‐Ethnics
Legislature size and welfare
Authoritarianism, Threat, and Americans’ Support for the War on Terror
Threat, Anxiety, and Support of Antiterrorism Policies
Which Narrative Strategies Durably Reduce Prejudice? Evidence from Field and Survey Experiments Supporting the Efficacy of Perspective‐Getting
Citizens and Security Threats
Stigma Consciousness and American Identity
Terrorist attacks and minority perceived discrimination
The Integration Paradox
Fight not flight
Islamophobia in America
Public perception of terrorism attacks
Catalyst of hate? Ethnic insulting on YouTube in the aftermath of terror attacks in France, Germany and the United Kingdom 2014-2017
Immigrants' electoral participation - the cross-national impact of public and political hostility
Are Voters Sensitive to Terrorism? Direct Evidence from the Israeli Electorate
From Isolation to Radicalization
Beyond the Ballot
Terrorist Events and Attitudes toward Immigrants
Perceived discrimination and support for democracy among immigrants
| Highly cited | No |
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