Attitudes Towards Outgroups Before and After Terror Attacks

In light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, the aim of the current set of studies was to examine if attitudes towards terrorists and—by extension—uninvolved outgroups (i.e., Muslims, refugees, and immigrants) changed before vs. after these attacks. In a Belgian student sample (Study 1a), we investigated the impact of the Paris attacks on various facets of outgroup attitudes: feelings towards terrorists, Muslims, and refugees, immigrant trust, immigrant threat, and immigrant prejudice. The impact of the Brussels attacks was studied in a Belgian convenience sample (Study 1b), specifically focusing on feelings towards refugees, refugee trust, refugee threat, and avoidance of contact with refugees. Results from frequentist and Bayesian analyses in both samples revealed no significant short- and long-term longitudinal changes in outgroup attitudes after both the Paris (Study 1a) and Brussels (Study 1b) attacks. We discuss these findings and connect them to the alleged refugee crisis; another recent event that polarized European societies.