Near- and long-term psychological effects of exposure to terrorist attacks

In this chapter we consider the possibility that the survival, recovery, and occasional resilience seen after terrorist incidents or other disasters reflect processes of dissipation, adaptation, habituation, and sensitization that are ubiquitous to biological organisms. We also consider that many instances of human survival--including thriving--are the result of broad cognitive and affective reappraisal processes that mediate the impacts of our interactions with the world and of normative tendencies to seek out others under conditions of stress. We describe the near- and long-term psychological effects of exposure to terrorist attacks and the threats of terrorist attacks here, largely ignoring important differences in location, type of strife, and local and national histories, not because these are not important but because we want to consider the most frequently occurring behaviors and the most general behavioral trends. While there is relatively little empirical analysis of terrorism or terrorists' behaviors--despite the plethora of materials published since 9/11--there is a significant body of scientific investigation on how people respond to trauma. It is that domain of science that we draw on to understand and predict how people are most likely to respond to terrorist attacks.