NSF And 9/11 >> Tracking Public Opinion
The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago documented Americans’ resilience after the attacks, registering large increases in national pride, confidence in government institutions and faith in both religion and community. However, months later, the continuing study found that some groups (such as residents of New York) were more likely to be worried about future terrorist attacks.
The researchers also compared responses to Sept. 11 and to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. People reported a large drop in their normally positive feelings toward life after the Kennedy assassination, but reported few similar responses after Sept. 11. However, the study found a much stronger feeling of anger after Sept. 11 than after the 1963 assassination.
Across the Atlantic—on March 11, 2003— Spain experienced a terrorist attack that was carefully timed to occur just before the Spanish national election. Tom W. Smith and Kenneth A. Rasinski of NORC used NSF support to commission Juan Diez-Nicolas of the Analisis Sociologicos Economicos Y Politicos to study the emotional aftermath.
According to Smith, the study found that residents of Madrid were angrier about the event and more fearful for their own lives and safety than were those who lived elsewhere in Spain. Those in Madrid and those in the rest of the country did not differ in the belief that Spain had brought the attack on itself. Overall, the Spanish citizens who did believe this expressed less satisfaction with the government, and fewer said that they would vote for the pro-U.S. incumbent government.
Next: NSF And 9/11 >> Surveying Foreign Populations
