The Cost of Fear-Based Policy [PSMag.com]

Samantha Sangenito 9/18/154:00 AM

Policy based on fear may be expedient for politicians and profitable for the media and the security sector, but it is generally bad policy.

Modern attitudes toward jihadist terrorism are a good example. By design, terrorism has always grabbed headlines, but Islamist extremism now holds far greater political salience than other more lethal threats of violence, such as American gun murders. The tendency to fixate on this one threat is not just costly and does not only rob resources from other priorities—it also incentivizes more terrorism.

This summer has been tragically useful for analyzing differences in public and political reactions to terrorism versus other gun-related violent crimes and, more broadly, examining the influence of psychology and cognitive bias in public opinion and policy.

[For more of this story, written by Jeff Eggers, go to http://www.psmag.com/politics-...of-fear-based-policy]

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