Behavioral responses to terrorist attacks: empirical evidence from professional football

Despite a rich literature on the psychological responses to terrorist attacks, surprisingly little is known about the subsequent changes in citizen behavior. In this research note, we exploit a unique sequence of two rare events, the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015 and the cancelation of the international friendly between Germany and the Netherlands over terrorist threats only four days later, to compare the number of German football spectator no-shows, i.e., the number of ticket holders that have decided not to attend a particular football game, before and after these attacks. Although we observe a significant increase in the number of no-shows during the first two weeks after the incidents, this effect was not permanent.