Filip Olsson
Sociological Science April 9, 2024
10.15195/v11.a14
Abstract
Sociology has recently seen a surge of interest in implicit culture, which refers to knowledge, habits, and feelings that are largely automatic and habitual. In this article, I argue that certain expressions of implicit culture may be more contextual and malleable than previously thought. The argument is illustrated by showing how terror attacks in France affect implicit bias toward Arab Muslims. By analyzing the longevity and specificity of this effect, I also detail when and why implicit bias might change. The article consists of two studies. Study 1 shows that the attacks significantly increased implicit bias in France (n = 449), whereas Study 2 shows that the attacks had a similar effect globally (n = 25795). There was no corresponding effect on explicit bias in either study. I discuss the implications of the findings for research on terror attacks, implicit bias, and implicit culture.
Sociology has recently seen a surge of interest in implicit culture, which refers to knowledge, habits, and feelings that are largely automatic and habitual. In this article, I argue that certain expressions of implicit culture may be more contextual and malleable than previously thought. The argument is illustrated by showing how terror attacks in France affect implicit bias toward Arab Muslims. By analyzing the longevity and specificity of this effect, I also detail when and why implicit bias might change. The article consists of two studies. Study 1 shows that the attacks significantly increased implicit bias in France (n = 449), whereas Study 2 shows that the attacks had a similar effect globally (n = 25795). There was no corresponding effect on explicit bias in either study. I discuss the implications of the findings for research on terror attacks, implicit bias, and implicit culture.
 | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
Replication Package: All data used are publicly available at https://osf.io/y9hiq/ and https://osf.io/kaqi5/. A replication package with R code is available at https://osf.io/j5wxu/
- Citation: Olsson, Filip. 2024. “Implicit Terror: A Natural Experiment on How Terror Attacks Affect Implicit Bias.” Sociological Science 11: 379-412.
- Received: January 17, 2024
- Accepted: March 6, 2024
- Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Stephen Vaisey
- DOI: 10.15195/v11.a14