Despite the widespread assumption of terrorism's “terrifying” effect, there has been little systematic testing of the specific emotional microfoundations underlying public opinion about terrorism. While fear is one well-recognized emotional response to terror threats, in societies where terrorism is rare, anger may play a more pivotal role, with distinct consequences for citizens’ downstream political attitudes. To test the impact of these emotional mechanisms on public opinion in the wake of terrorism, I employ a multi-arm mechanism experiment (n = 5,499) in the United States that manipulates both exposure to news about different types of terror attacks and the encouraged emotional response. I supplement this experimental study with observational analyses of the emotional content of social media posts in the wake of sixteen real-world terror attacks in the United States. I find that not only is anger the dominant emotional response to terrorism across both studies, but also that punitive motivations and support for retaliation are both directly shaped by experimentally induced anger after exposure to news about terrorism. These findings illuminate strategic incentives shaping militants’ use of terror tactics, electoral constraints leaders face in formulating counterterror policy, and the emotional mechanisms fueling cycles of political violence.

尽管人们普遍认为恐怖主义具有“可怕”的影响，但几乎没有对恐怖主义公众舆论背后的具体情感微观基础进行系统性的测试。虽然恐惧是一种众所周知的针对恐怖威胁的情绪反应，但在恐怖主义很少见的社会中，愤怒可能发挥着更关键的作用，对公民下游的政治态度产生明显的影响。为了测试这些情绪机制在恐怖主义发生后对公众舆论的影响，我在美国进行了一项多臂机制实验（n = 5,499），该实验既操纵有关不同类型恐怖袭击的新闻曝光度，又操纵鼓励的情绪回复。在美国发生十六起现实世界恐怖袭击之后，我对社交媒体帖子的情感内容进行了观察分析，对这项实验研究进行了补充。我发现，在这两项研究中，愤怒不仅是对恐怖主义的主要情绪反应，而且惩罚动机和对报复的支持都是由实验诱发的接触恐怖主义新闻后的愤怒直接塑造的。这些发现阐明了武装分子使用恐怖策略的战略动机、领导人在制定反恐政策时面临的选举限制，以及助长政治暴力循环的情绪机制。