By Dr Gizem Arikan and Dr Judit Krisztina Ralbovszki, published January 2026
Abstract:
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.