| Lay Perceptions of Terrorist Acts and Counter‑Terrorism Responses: Role of Motive, Offence Construal, Siege Mentality and Human Rights (2008) | |||||||||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||||||||
| Chapter 6 of "Fresh Perspectives on the ‘War on Terror’". This chapter reports data from an empirical study of lay perceptions of terrorist acts and counter-terrorism initiatives in Australia. Relationships were measured between the following independent variables: perpetrator motive, offence construal (how an incident was described by a police spokesperson), siege mentality beliefs (the belief that you are alone in the world and under siege), and human rights beliefs. The measured dependent variables were: perceived blameworthiness of the perpetrator and perceived appropriateness of counter-terrorism initiatives. Measurement of human rights beliefs were also made, including whether participants agreed that violations of civil and political rights were justified in response to a food tampering incident due to an overarching ‘right to human security’ (derived from the right to life). A ‘right to human security’ had been asserted in Australia by the former Commonwealth Attorney-General in statements preceding data collection. | |||||||||||||||
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