Transcultural pathways to the will to fight

Abstract

In 2022, the “Will to Fight Act” was referred to the US Congress urging attention to measuring and assessing will to fight. That Bill was not enacted, and evaluation efforts within the political and military establishment remain contentious, fragmented, and meager. This likely will persist, along with attendant policy failures and grievous costs, without awareness of research that the social and psychological sciences reveal on the will to fight [S. Atran, Science 373 , 1063 (2021)]. We illustrate such research using converging data from a multimethod and multicultural approach, including field and online studies from the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. These studies reveal specific psychosocial pathways, within a general causal framework, that predict willingness to make costly sacrifices, including to cooperate, fight, and die in war and sustained conflict. From the continuing strife in Iraq to embattled Ukraine, 31 studies were conducted in 9 countries with nearly 12,000 participants. These include people in longstanding conflicts, refugees, imprisoned jihadists and gangs, US military, studies in Ukraine before and during the current war, and rolling studies with a European ally of Ukraine. Results provide evidence for a mediation model of transcultural pathways to the will to fight. Building on our previous behavioral and brain research, on the battlefield in Iraq, with violent extremists, and with US military, the linear mediation yielding the will to fight involves identity fusion, perceived spiritual formidability, and trust. The model, a variation on “The Devoted Actor Framework,” applies to primary reference groups, core cultural values, and leaders.

Does the union always make the force? Group status and recategorization influence the perceived physical formidability of potential coalition groups

“…Whereas previous work on intergroup relations has focused largely on the favorability of intergroup orientations, the current work explored the impact of a power‐related factor, formidability, in the assessment of partners in a coalition, in this case the EU. Although some previous work has examined the perceived formidability of large groups (e.g., Fessler & Holbrook, 2016; Gómez et al, 2017, 2023; Vázquez et al, 2020), there was no empirical evidence on the factors that shape the formidability of an intergroup coalition. The main goal of these studies was to understand more fully how including groups of different statuses affects the perceived physical formidability of an intergroup alliance and to illuminate key contributors to these dynamics, which can stimulate further research that investigates additional moderators, mediators and consequences.…”

“…Thus, based on the research of Fessler and colleagues about multiple factors in formidability reflected in size‐and‐strength representation measures, future research might include measures of other aspects of formidability and test their effects comparatively in the context of intergroup coalition formation. For example, as noted earlier, formidability can take the form of spiritual formidability (Gómez et al, 2017, 2023), which represents “the conviction and nonmaterial resources (values, strengths of beliefs, and character)” that can increase the effectiveness of an individual, group, or coalition to effectively deal with adversaries (Tossell et al, 2022, p. 1). Spiritual and physical formidability are distinctive concepts that can have independent effects on outcomes such as willingness to fight or make self‐sacrifices for one's group.…”

“…This measure shows a human body that varies conjointly and proportionally in size and muscularity. Previous research suggests that, providing different instructions, this measure can be used to capture both physical and spiritual formidability (Gómez et al, 2017(Gómez et al, , 2023Tossell et al, 2022) and, depending on the target, the estimations for these types of formidability may differ substantially.…”

“…Although the present research drew heavily on the theory and method developed by Fessler and colleagues, our work was further guided by the approach of Gómez et al (2017Gómez et al ( , 2023 and Tossell et al (2022). The particular focus of the three current studies was on the physical facet of formidability, also extending research on interpersonal coalitions to intergroup allies.…”

“…Fessler and colleagues (Fessler et al, 2012, 2023; Fessler & Holbrook, 2013, 2016; Holbrook et al, 2016) have conducted important, pioneering work over the past decade on the formidability representation hypothesis, which states that formidability encompasses multiple assets and liabilities that contribute to fighting ability and that are cognitively encapsulated in a single representation with two conceptual dimensions: size (stature) and strength (muscularity). While recognizing the theoretical position and empirical support that cognitive representations of size and strength (i.e., envisioned physical formidability), through evolutionary processes, generally are affected by factors other than physicality, Gómez et al (2017, 2023) and Tossell et al (2022) distinguished between two facets of formidability – physical and spiritual.…”