Factors that Impact Attitudes Toward Terrorist Violence in Iraq

Understanding Iraqi citizens’ views about terrorism is important for transforming attitudes in Iraq, the larger Middle East, and Western societies. Terrorism is a global concern with far-reaching consequences for both perpetrators and victims of violent acts and reprisals. To add to our understanding of attitudes toward terrorism, we analyzed data from a convenience sample of 347 respondents who were university students in Iraq in 2017. The results from our first model show that peace advocacy leads to lower levels of pro-terrorism attitudes. Also, gender, age, race, year at school, and living arrangement had negative, significant effects on pro-terrorism attitudes. The findings from our second model reveal that peace advocacy was significantly and positively related to anti-terrorism attitudes. In addition, compared to conservatives, liberals were less likely to be against terrorism in Iraq. Lastly, compared to fifth-year students, first- and second-year students were less likely to hold anti-terrorism attitudes. The implications of our findings for elected and government officials, scholars, community relations, public policy, and future research are discussed.