Fear and Anger Elicited by Terrorist Attack: The Power of Jujitsu Politics

We argue that (1) terrorists’ targets are subject to emotions that affect their political choices, (2) terrorists’ targets experience more anger than fear, (3) both fear and anger in reaction to terrorist attack produce over-reactions that serve the terrorists (jujitsu politics), and (4) defining terrorism as an attempt to coerce by fear blinds us to the power of anger in determining reaction to terrorism.