Salience Shifts and Managerial Discretion: How Periods of Islamist Terrorism Affect the Employment of Middle Eastern Men

Reichelt M, Müller C (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

American Sociological Review SAGE Publications (UK and US) / American Sociological Association

Abstract

Islamist terrorist attacks evoke negative stereotypes and symbolic threat perceptions toward men perceived to be of Middle Eastern origin, yet evidence on the labor market consequences of these attacks remains inconsistent. We address this ambiguity by developing a framework that links external shocks to employment outcomes through salience shifts and managerial discretion within workplaces. Salience shifts arise when clusters of terrorist attacks—rather than isolated events—are amplified by media coverage, reinforcing or generating stereotypes and increasing the likelihood that ethnoracial categories become consequential in hiring decisions. Whether such shifts translate into exclusion depends on organizational contexts that mute or permit greater managerial discretion. We test this framework using monthly linked employer–employee data from Germany (1999 to 2019), data on terrorist attacks linked to Islamist motives, name-based measures of perceived origin, and topic-modeled newspaper coverage. Our analyses show that periods marked by multiple Islamist terrorist attacks and heightened media coverage significantly reduce the employment of men perceived to be of Middle Eastern origin. These effects are strongest in workplaces with a high share of non-complex jobs and in settings lacking formal hiring procedures or worker representation, but they are muted where Middle Eastern managers are present. Together, these findings indicate when and where politicized events translate into employment disparities, highlighting the need to account for temporal and organizational contexts.

Authors with CRIS profile

Malte Reichelt Juniorprofessur für Computational Social Science mit Schwerpunkt Social Dynamics Christoph Müller Institut für Soziologie

How to cite

APA:

Reichelt, M., & Müller, C. (2026). Salience Shifts and Managerial Discretion: How Periods of Islamist Terrorism Affect the Employment of Middle Eastern Men. American Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224261424488

MLA:

Reichelt, Malte, and Christoph Müller. "Salience Shifts and Managerial Discretion: How Periods of Islamist Terrorism Affect the Employment of Middle Eastern Men." American Sociological Review (2026).

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