Sorrow and Solidarity: Why Americans Volunteered for 9/11 Relief Efforts.

Why did some Americans volunteer to provide relief to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack victims, their families, or workers? This paper uses data from the 2002 Religion and Public Activism Survey, a nationally representative sample of adult Americans, which show that 10 percent of Americans volunteered to help victims of the terrorist attacks in some way to address this question. We argue that the act of volunteering in response to September 11 depended on levels of identification with victims of the tragedy. One of the strongest factors was personal identification with victims, which was built through personal networks such as knowing someone who was killed or in danger during the attacks, and through personal feelings of responsibility to help others in need. Identification was also constructed through involvement in social events such as community candlelight vigils that reflected on, framed, and reinforced the significance of the disaster in a communal setting. In addition, identification: with victims was built through a patriotic response to the tragedy, which, we argue, motivated Americans to defend the society with which they were emotionally identified and to see victims as part of the American family to which they were obligated to help in times of need. We argue that emotions matter for disaster relief but that sorrow rather than anger is important for generating identification with victims and thus volunteering for 9/11 relief efforts. These arguments are used to explain gender and political party differences in 9/11 volunteering. Finally, embeddedness in religious congregations promoted volunteering for 9/11 relief efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]