Americans' Value Preferences Pre- and Post-9/11

Objective. This article examines the short- and long-term effects of the attacks of 9/11 on Americans’ value preferences. Method. Using data from 1994, 2002, and 2005, I estimate a rank-ordered logit model where the dependent variable is respondents’ rank-ordered preferences on four values central t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science quarterly 2016-06, Vol.97 (2), p.407-417
Main Author: Ciuk, David J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Cultural values
Data analysis
Disasters
Equality
Of General Interest
Political culture
Respondents
Security
September 11 terrorist attacks-2001
Social order
Social research
Terrorism
Trade
Trauma
Values
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objective. This article examines the short- and long-term effects of the attacks of 9/11 on Americans’ value preferences. Method. Using data from 1994, 2002, and 2005, I estimate a rank-ordered logit model where the dependent variable is respondents’ rank-ordered preferences on four values central to American political culture. Results. The short-term effects of 9/11 are significant: Americans’ were willing to “trade” equality and economic security for social order. In the long term, these effects fade and value preferences swing back to pre-9/11 levels. Conclusion. These findings align nicely with a body of literature that suggests that traumatic public events induce feelings of panic and anxiety, thereby causing people to reorder their fundamental political cognitions. As these feelings fade, however, individuals’ fundamental political cognitions revert back toward normal.
ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237
DOI:10.1111/ssqu.12229