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The rational response to terrorism.
- Source :
-
Economist . 7/23/2005, Vol. 376 Issue 8436, p72-72. 1p. 1 Color Photograph. - Publication Year :
- 2005
-
Abstract
- The article offers an economic analysis of how people respond to terrorism. In looking at the public mood after a terrorist attack, economists can help, for it is their instinct to look at what people do, not what they say; to trust numbers, not anecdotes; and to look for clues in the inflections of mass behavior, not the hasty reflections of the mass media. Gary Becker, a Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago, and Yona Rubinstein, of Tel Aviv University, have a working paper to examine how the general public responds to the threat posed by suicide-bombers. Killing is a means of spreading fear. Terrorists introduce a small risk of violent death into humdrum daily activities. Becker and Rubinstein argue that it is not the risk of physical harm that moves people; it is the emotional disquiet. People respond to fear, not risk.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00130613
- Volume :
- 376
- Issue :
- 8436
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Economist
- Publication Type :
- Periodical
- Accession number :
- 17706238