No Compassion for Muslims? How Journalistic News Coverage of Terrorist Crimes Influences Emotional Reactions and Policy Support Depending on the Victim’s Religion

Islamist terrorist attacks have become a salient threat to Western countries, and news coverage about such crimes is key predictor of public emotional reactions policy support. We examine the effects two characteristics terrorism coverage: (1) victim’s religion (2) first-person narratives that facilitate perspective taking. A quota-based experiment ( N = 354) revealed irrespective narrative type, reports mention victims’ Muslim induce less anger compassion, but more joy among non-Muslim consumers. However, fear was equally induced by all articles. As consequence, fear, anger, predicted support for restrictive policies, while compassion were related victim compensation.