How Has 9/11 Affected America

The tragedy of 9/11 affected Americans with an everlasting effect. It open American people’s eyes to the world of terrorism causing an array of emotional, behavioral and ethical changes. Understanding the history of terrorism will help us determine the why behind such acts. Is Terrorism political? Is it a religious cause? Is it to cause confusion amongst a nation so that they don’t trust their government and seek out something or someone else for it? As (Nigdy, & Ritchie, 2018) have identified, terrorism has its roots from first century AD. A terrorist Jewish organization broken down into two groups, the Sicarii and the Zealots. The Sicarii who targeted other Jews that were collaborating with the Roman government and the Zealots who targeted

mostly political leaders from the Roman Government. This terrorist organization sought political control. Another incident in 1605, there was a plot to kill King James I by Guy Fawkes and 12 others conspirators. The plot eventually failed when Fawkes was discovered. This terrorist plot was moved by religion according to (Greenspan, 2012)n). Another immediate factor terrorism effects is the economic impact it leaves a country in. The physical destruction of buildings, transportation systems, factories and other economic resources.
We can see that terrorism has a wide array of end states that it is trying to achieve, concluding that terrorism can be defined as “"the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation” (Maryland, 2018).

The importance of analyzing terrorism is to understand the impact it has had on all factors mentioned above but also to see what changes it has had on behavior, expression and ethics on the human being. When the attacks of 9/11 occurred on American soil, the American people initially reacted with fear, anxiety and anger. Since then, we are witnessing the second and third order effects of it, impacting human behavior, expression and ethics. 9/11 has affected American people in profoundly deep and lingering ways till this day that are both positive and

negative.
Human behavior changed significantly after 9/11 with studies done by Carolyn A. Ristau and Paul Rozin published in the American Psychological Association that covered approximately 5 to 11 months after 9/11. There was a rise in civility, hostility and increased friendliness in the areas surrounding the event. The direction of this changed dependent on the ethnicity. The report indicated African American reported a rise in civility whereas Asians reported a decrease. “The 9/11 attack seemed to improve public reaction to African Americans, perhaps because they were replaced by Middle-Easterners/South Asians as part of the 'new enemy,' the Muslim terrorists” (Carolyn A. Ristau, 2016).
Effects of this behavior changed were felt by the Arabs. They were hit hard with media and stories linking them to terrorists causing a hostile response economically and socially. Families affected by it went online to share their stores on social media @nahwalnut posted “#afterseptember11 my parents genuinely asked my brother if he wanted to change his name bc it’s Osama. He was 9” (Claire, 2016). Another “#AfterSeptember11 my great grandfather was murdered walking to a mosque as he was going to pray for the family members he lost…” (Claire, 2016).
This event not only impacted the behavior of those in the surrounding areas of 9/11 but the influence reached all over the country. Another study published in the in American Journal of Economics and Business Administrations looking at attitudes and psychological states of employees years after the attack. The study revealed employees were reevaluating the meaning of work, they also seen an increased in “loyalty and commitment to one’s organization, greater employee caring for one another, need for increased time with family as opposed to spending time at work and more negative job attitudes” (Amy E. Hurley-Hanson, 2010).
Sadly, these behavior changes seemed like they were short lived. In an interview with Historians, (Smith, 2011) explained how we had a brief unity of coming together, of common purpose, a collective outrage and response. But now it seems to be in the rearview mirror. It seems there has been a lot of good human behaviors forgotten with only a focus on negativity driven by fear. “The 9/11 terror attacks are likely to have induced an increase in anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner sentiments” (Schuller, 2016). A lasting effect that we have felt to this day.
Human expression focusing on emotions initially and years after the attacks were anxiety, fear and anger when the 9/11 attacks were unfolding then eventually being engulfed by anger. A report focusing solely on fear and anger and how those affected behavior in the American populace was conducted nationally and published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology . Results shown “that anger but not fear predicted support for expanding the war beyond Afghanistan, and fear but not anger predicted support for deporting Arab Americans, Muslims, and first generation immigrants” (Linda J. Skitka, 2006). The human expression compared to the human behavior according to these reports linked to those today have been unchangeable. “Three psychological scientists at the Johannes Guttenberg University Mainz–Mitja Back, Albrecht Kufner and Boris Egloff” (Anger trumped terror on 9/11, 2010) analyzed thousands upon thousands of social media specifically text messages which looked at emotional words. Their conclusion was that anger surpassed all emotions. It is an expected reaction when someone is attacked. But this emotion could trigger outrage and the yearning for retribution which we have seen with an uprising in hate crimes against Arabs across the country. This has only created a hostile social climate.
Journalists have seen a change in human expression since 9/11. A journalist by the name of Michael W. Waters collected countless journals of people during 9/11, these journals “were powerful and captivating, revealing real fear, uncertainty, anger and hope” (Waters, 2011). 10 years later after pulling out the archives of those journals and re-reading them. He realized that journalist do “not capture the human experience in handwritten form anymore” (Waters, 2011). The change has been a loss of authentic expression of the human spirit.
Unity amongst American was strong after 9/11.

There was a newfound unity all over America, flags appearing everywhere. In all social classes, from political figures, artists and athletes coming together and conduct concerts, rallies etc. many Americans gave blood and donated millions of dollars across the country. There was a unity amongst Americans with important values as well. Unity also brought some tolerance (Schieffer, 2011) remembered driving to work the next day and notice road rage was gone, people would honk but with a smile. This unity unfortunately did not last long. Now almost 17 years after 9/11, Americans fight about everything, from gun control, everything offends everyone and with social media only adding fuel to the fire fueling the divide. “After the 9/11 attacks, the nation rallied against a common enemy. It was Americans vs. the terrorists. But soon the country was back to Americans vs. Americans” (Petrecca, 2017).

Ethics pre, post 9/11 and now have seen changes. A report published in the Social Science Quarterly examined short and long term effects of 9/11 on Americans worth inclinations. “Results shown that the short-term effects of 9/11 are significant: Americans' were willing to 'trade' equality and economic security for social order. In the long term, these effects fade and value preferences swing back to pre-9/11 levels” (Cluk, 2016). This shows us how our internal ethic system when you have feelings of anxiety and fear causes a shift in fundamental

cognitions. As these emotions diminish, we go back to our normal ones.
According to the Department of Defense, they was a huge “surge in patriotism following 9/11” (Winokoor, 2011). The American people felt like it was the right thing to do following the attacks. The Air Force surveyed Airmen as to why they joined and the three top reasons were “continuing one’s college education, opportunity to travel, job security and being independent” (Winokoor, 2011). It seems like patriotism was no longer a reason 10 years after 9/11. The last time patriotism was the top reason was in 2003. This tells us that there has been a change in principles since 9/11. The feelings, beliefs, what society believes is the right thing to do has shifted to pre 9/11 numbers.
There has been changes to some extent post 9/11 to civil liberties. After 9/11, “the U.S. embraced policies that contradicted its purported values” (Haltiwanger, 2017). Implementation of the Patriot Act giving access to agencies to conduct surveillance on terrorists foreign and domestic in the name of security. For many Americans, if this meant being safer then it makes sense to give up a little to get something in return. This in turn has created two sides, One, believing the governments should do and have the right to use any means necessary even if that includes invasion of privacy. The other, believing American freedoms are so important that certain titles within the Patriot act violates constitutional rights.