Political terrorism is a sophisticated form of psychological warfare which aims to accomplish political ends by bearing on individuals' emotions and attitudes. This article presents the results of a public opinion survey, conducted on an Israeli national sample, which was designed to evaluate the psychological impacts of terroristic activity and the basic assumptions that guide it. The results indicate that terrorism is highly effective in inducing fear and worry, even when the actual damage it causes is moderate. However, terrorism appears to have failed to produce the attitudinal change desired by its perpetrators, the high levels of fear notwithstanding. On the contrary, terrorism caused a hardening of attitudes, strong opposition to any form of political reconciliation with terrorists, and widespread support for extreme counterterrorist measures. Terrorism, in other words, proved to be counterproductive. These results provided a basis for an extensive analysis of the conditions that turn terrorism into a potentially effective tool of political influence, and those in which it is likely to fail.
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Friedland et al. (1985) studied this question.
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