Public Perceptions of What Qualifies as Terrorism Across Similar Countries with Diverse Terrorism Experiences

Abstract

Norway, Sweden and Iceland are neighboring countries that have diverse experiences with terrorism. A right-wing extremist used explosives and guns to kill scores of Norwegians and an Islamic fundamentalist used a truck as a weapon to kill Swedes. Meanwhile, Icelanders have not experienced terrorism at all. What role, if any, do these experiences have in what the public defines as terrorism? Drawing on theories that emphasize similarities in media environments and culture between the countries, we examine the pre-registered hypotheses that certain features of political violence lead to shared definitions of terrorism. Results from survey experiments show a broad Nordic terrorism consensus, demonstrating the importance of violence, a high number of casualties, right-wing extremism and incidents motivated by policy change and hatred. Our findings have practical implications for predicting when societies will likely perceive violent incidents as terrorism and thus whether they will be receptive to the label assigned by media or authorities.