An Experimental Study of the Effects of Government Terror Warnings on Political Attitudes

How do concerns about terrorism affect the way Americans view the 2008 presidential candidates? How would an event that increases the prominence of terrorism, like a threat or attack, affect the 2008 election? The purpose of this study is to examine the role that exposure to terror threats has on the American public’s view of presidential candidates and candidate preferences; specifically, the effect that terror threats have on political attitudes. Moreover, researchers were interested in if Americans' view of the war on terror remained the same or changed. The survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks (KN) over the Internet in May 2006, using a nationally representative sample of 1282 American adults. KN recruits panel members over the telephone via random digit dialing (RDD) and provides them with WebTV equipment in exchange for their participation in weekly surveys, which they complete online. The major variables in this study consisted of demographic variables in addition to presidential approval, ranked importance, and preferred candidate in the 2008 presidential election. Researchers looked at political psychology batteries including variables such as measures of tolerance for ambiguity, openness to uncertainty, social dominance orientation, and traditionalism.