Since U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden May 1, Americans' view of Muslim Americans has grown more negative and fearful.

Results of a telephone survey conducted April 7-May 24 by Cornell's Survey Research Institute (SRI) and the University of New Hampshire Survey Center and released July 20 find that before bin Laden's death, almost half of respondents described Muslim Americans as "trustworthy" and "peaceful."

The timing of bin Laden's death was fortuitous for the researchers, said SRI director Yasmin Miller: "The death offered us this wonderful opportunity to look at pre- and post-bin Laden death attitudes of Americans toward Muslim Americans. We really got a perfect experiment. We couldn't have planned it better."

After the killing, one-third of Americans agreed with positive descriptors of Muslim Americans, down from half, and following heavy, prolonged media coverage of the death. After the killing, they also reported that they were less likely to oppose restrictions on Muslim American civil liberties, and opposition to religious profiling of Muslims as potential terrorists dropped to 63 percent from 71 percent.

Thirty-four percent of Americans -- a rise from 27 percent -- agreed that Muslims living in the United States "increased the likelihood of a terrorist attack." Finally, nearly one in three respondents agreed that "Muslims are mostly responsible for creating the religious tension that exists in the United States today," up from one in five before bin Laden's death.

The negative shift in attitude occurred among liberals and moderates, whose views took a conservative turn following bin Laden's demise.

Miller said the survey "underlines people's unease and nervousness. They're not fully confident that the government is truly protecting its citizens. Immediately after this killing there was suspicion of more terrorist attacks, and therefore there was a lack of confidence that the government can keep people safe."

The survey's authors are Erik Nisbet, Ph.D. '08, assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University and a former SRI research associate; Michelle Ortiz of Ohio State University; Miller; and Andrew Smith, University of New Hampshire Survey Center.