Public Opinion and the London 2005 Bombings

Abstract

The London bomb attacks of 7 July 2005 are often cited amongst a series of events that have altered relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Western Europe. We present the first systematic analysis of the effects of the attacks on the attitudes of ordinary Britons, using a survey that was in the field when the attacks occurred and includes a unique over-sample of respondents from ethnic and religious minorities. We measure the effects of this event using an interrupted time-series design. Multivariate matching is used to construct a ‘synthetic panel’ of otherwise similar individuals interviewed before and after the attacks, and differences in responses across these matched pairs are used to estimate the effects of the attacks on a set of political attitudes. We find that the attacks increased perceptions of prejudice, but that different ethnic and religious groups responded in distinct ways. We find no evidence that British Muslims were induced to fear for their safety or their civil liberties. We disaggregate by date of interview and use a content analysis of British news media to examine the relationship between political attitudes and media coverage of the event and its aftermath. The paper provides evidence of media ‘priming’ effects in an information-rich context.