Where Terror Lies: Misrepresentation of Extremist Attitudes and Terrorist Attacks in the Sahel

Researchers have commonly treated misrepresentations in survey responses as an impediment to the accurate measurement of a variable or construct of substantive importance. This study builds on that approach and considers whether misreporting bias regarding support for violent extremism—both under- a...

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1. VerfasserIn: Finkel, Steven E. (VerfasserIn)
Beteiligte: McCauley, John F. ; Neureiter, Michael ; Belasco, Christopher A.
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2023
In: Terrorism and political violence
Jahr: 2023, Band: 35, Heft: 4, Seiten: 888-907
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Zusammenfassung:Researchers have commonly treated misrepresentations in survey responses as an impediment to the accurate measurement of a variable or construct of substantive importance. This study builds on that approach and considers whether misreporting bias regarding support for violent extremism—both under- and over-reporting—may then have consequences for how terrorist violence itself unfolds. Using data from nearly 4,000 respondents in thirty-five communes in Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger collected just prior to a recent wave of terrorist attacks, we find that communes where individuals under-report their true support for violent extremism—as measured with unobtrusive experimental methods—have a greater probability of experiencing subsequent Islamist attacks, controlling for socio-demographic characteristics of the commune, country-level proximity effects, and other time-varying factors. The findings raise important considerations regarding the measurement of extremist support, and they suggest a new tool for identifying communities potentially susceptible to terrorist violence.
ISSN:1556-1836
DOI:10.1080/09546553.2021.1987893