Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Department of Psychological Sciences Publications 8-7-2013 Norms, Diplomatic Alternatives, and the Social Psychology of War Support Aaron M. Hoffman Purdue University,
[email protected] Christopher R. Agnew Purdue University,
[email protected] Laura E. VanderDrift Syracuse University,
[email protected] Robert Kulzick
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/psychpubs Recommended Citation Hoffman, Aaron M.; Agnew, Christopher R.; VanderDrift, Laura E.; and Kulzick, Robert, "Norms, Diplomatic Alternatives, and the Social Psychology of War Support" (2013). Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Publications. Paper 64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022002713498706 This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact
[email protected] for additional information. Norms, diplomatic alternatives and the social psychology of war support Aaron M. Hoffman1 Christopher R. Agnew2 Laura Vanderdrift3 Robert Kulzick1 Abstract: Using experiments, we show that subjects who are asked about their support for war without being told about diplomatic strategies to deal with crises back military operations at levels consistent with people who are told that the alternatives to war are of low quality. In contrast, subjects who are told that diplomacy could work to resolve conflicts express less support for military operations. These results suggest that, in the absence of conflicting evidence, people premise their support for war on the assumption that leaders use force as a last resort. Implications for the study of success as an influence on public attitudes about U.S.