ISTPP researchers, Drs. Xinsheng Liu, Jeryl Mumpower, Kent Portney, and Arnold Vedlitz, have published their research, “Perceived Risk of Terrorism and Policy Preferences for Government Counterterrorism Spending: Evidence from a U.S. National Panel Survey,” in Risk, Hazard & Crisis in Public Policy.
Using data from a national two-wave panel survey, the authors investigate how individual social-economic-political characteristics and psychometric factors shape citizens’ terrorism risk perception, and how such risk perception and perception of government competence affect policy preference for government counterterrorism spending. The authors also use the survey data to question a possible decay in the public’s perception of terrorism risk and their preference towards increased counterterrorism spending over time.
Their analysis suggests that psychometric factors are more predictive of a respondent having a higher perception level of risk and greater perceived government competency leading to the respondent being more supportive of an increase in counterterrorism spending. The authors do not find there to be any significant decay in overall risk perception between the two waves, but they do find positive relationships between changes in risk perception and changes in psychometric variables. They also find that changes in citizens’ preferences for government spending are predicated by changes in perceived risk and government competence at the individual level. This research contributes to the literature on the influence of risk perception on preferences for government spending.
Liu, Xinsheng, Jeryl L. Mumpower, Kent E. Portney, and Arnold Vedlitz. 2018. “Perceived Risk of Terrorism and Policy Preferences for Government Counterterrorism Spending: Evidence from a U.S. National Panel Survey,” Risk, Hazard & Crisis in Public Policy (https://doi.org/10.1002/rhc3.12154)
